Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix have created a historic milestone for Great Britain by securing the country’s first-ever diving medal in a women’s event at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The talented duo claimed a silver medal in the 10m synchro competition, building on their previous success of winning European gold in Rome the previous year.
With consistently strong scores throughout the competition, including a final-round high score of 74.88, Toulson and Spendolini-Sirieix achieved a total score of 311.76 and etched their names in diving history.
Their score was second to China’s Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan, who took the gold, with the American pair of Delaney Schnell and Jessica Parratto with bronze. Lois Toulson told British Swimming: “I think I can speak for both of us that we are over the moon. Coming into this competition, we both knew that we could do it, but that sometimes makes it worse.
“But we put in a good performance and we’re over the moon! I can’t really believe that, I had no idea [about becoming the first British female divers to win a world championships medal].
“I’ve been after a world medal for a while now, so to finally come away with one, and next to Andrea with a good performance, it makes all the hard work feel worth it.”
Spendolini-Sirieix, the daughter of the TV personality Fred Sirieix, added: “It’s incredible. I’m so proud of us, and to see women in sport excelling, proving we can do everything.
“It didn’t cross my mind when we were competing, I just knew that we had a goal to achieve. We have achieved so many goals – we got the Paris [Olympics] spot, we got more than 300 points, we improved on the prelims and then adding to history is a beautiful moment.”
