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Couch: medal hope in 2012
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Plymouth teenager Tonia Couch finished an impressive eighth in the final of the women's 10m platform diving.
The 19-year-old produced a consistent display and although she ended up 101.20 points outside the medal places, the level of performance she displayed in her first individual Olympic final was encouraging.
Team-mate Stacie Powell made a bright start but tailed away after the first two rounds, but at 22 she will also be able to look towards the London Olympics in 2012.
Couch ended up with a total score of 328.70 from her five dives, while Powell, who finished 10th, registered 303.50.
China completed a clean sweep of diving gold medals as 15-year-old Chen Ruolin scored an incredible 100.30 for her final dive to beat Canada's Emilie Heymans into second spot, with Wang Xin third for China.
Qualifying 12th and 11th for the final, the British pair were the first to dive, and both made a solid start as Couch scored 67.20 for an inward two and a half somersault, while Powell earned 69.75 for an armstand forward double somersault with one twist.
Impressive
However, those scores were only enough for the pair to lie ninth and 10th, with home favourite Chen taking an early lead with an impressive 85.50 for her forward three and a half somersault.
Couch then went for the same dive as the impressive Chen, but scored just 64.50 for her effort.
Powell went for the more difficult back three and a half somersault but registered just 64.35 for her dive.
However, with a number of divers suffering difficult second dives, the British pair moved up the standings two places each, although they were still both more than 36 points outside the medal positions.
Couch then stepped up a notch by producing a back two and a half somersault, which earned her an impressive 73.10, moving her up to sixth place overall after three of the five dives.
Climb
She followed that up with a armstand back somersault with one and a half twists which scored 67.20 to climb to fifth
Powell though was tailing off badly, and scores of 46.40 and 46.70 in rounds three and four dropped her down to ninth.
The final dive from Couch, a reverse two and a half somersault, was her weakest, earning just 56.70, but by then a top-10 finish was assured.
Powell rounded off her Olympics with the best dive either of the Brits could manage, 76.50 for a back two and a half somersault with two and a half twists.
