Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen paid tribute to former Team GB coach David Jenkins after they clinched Britain’s first medal of the Paris Olympics in the women’s synchronised 3m springboard diving event.
Harper and Mew Jensen got off to a superb start after scoring 50.40 with their opening dive but found themselves outside of the medal places with one round remaining at Saint-Denis’ packed-out Aquatics Centre.
However, a slip-up from Australia’s duo of Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith saw the British pair finish third and pick up the bronze medal, with China and the USA taking gold and silver respectively.
The joy and relief was written all over the faces of both Harper and Mew Jensen as they successfully secured Britain’s first female Olympic diving medal in 64 years.
After standing on the podium to collect their medals, the Team GB stars spoke with BBC Sport, giving their reaction after a rollercoaster competition in the French capital.
‘We’re so excited, we’re so pleased with ourselves,’ a beaming Harper said.
‘We came into this event knowing that this is what we want but we had to stand up on the board today and deliver and I’m so proud that we were able to do that this morning.
‘Every time before we do a dive, we have a little word with each other, “Take your time, don’t rush, we know what we’re doing”, and on our last dive we decided to change our order so we put our hardest dive last, just so we had a bit of extra advantage at the end. That went well for us so we’re pleased.’
On Australia’s mistake which helped them secure bronze, Harper added: ‘When it’s tight like that, we knew that they had to falter a bit.
For them to feel the pressure and drop that dive meant that we come away with the bronze medal so we couldn’t be more pleased.
Mew Jensen, meanwhile, paid an emotional tribute to the late Jenkins, who died aged just 31 after coaching Team GB’s Olympic squad in Tokyo four years ago.
Jenkins – a former Commonwealth silver medallist himself – was found unconscious in a swimming pool in Antalya, Turkey in October 2021 and a subsequent inquest ruled that he had died of adult death syndrome.
‘I said to Yas that all I was thinking about was him when we found out that we got a bronze,’ Mew Jensen said.
‘I know that he would be so proud of us. We were doing it when he was around as well so to split up, come back again and be Olympic medallists, I can’t explain it. I wish he was here but it’s a turn of events that I wish had never happened.’
Mew Jensen suffered a back fracture just weeks before the Games which put her participation in Paris in major doubt.
‘I’m lost for words. A month ago I didn’t think I was going to be able to be here,’ she added.
‘I got a back fracture so, yeah, to be up on the board and come away with a medal… I can’t even imagine anything better.’
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