Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix: British diver ‘very, very proud’ with seventh place on Olympic debut

The 16-year-old exceeded her expectations with a consistent series of dives.

Teenager Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix was delighted with her Olympic debut after finishing seventh in the women’s 10 metres platform event in Tokyo.

The 16-year-old put together a consistent series of dives, concluding with her best of the five, to finish with a score of 305.5 points.

Spendolini-Sirieix, who is the daughter of TV presenter Fred Sirieix said: “I am so happy. I was speaking to my family because there is an Athlete Moment screen and I started crying. I am very, very proud of where I came.

“I was extremely nervous before the prelims so I thought my nerves would get the better of me and I wouldn’t make it to the semi. Then after the semi I got into the final and that was exactly what I wanted to do. I’ve definitely exceeded my expectations.”

Lois Toulson also reached the final for Britain but she had a low score for her second dive and was disappointed to finish ninth.

The 21-year-old said: “I feel very tired. It definitely wasn’t the performance that I wanted to finish on but there was definitely some good stuff to take away from it. I’ve been very consistent over the three competitions, which is a good thing.”

The competition was dominated by two brilliant Chinese teenagers. Fourteen-year-old Quan Hongchan scored perfect 10s across the board for two of her dives and claimed gold, with 15-year-old Chen Yuxi taking silver.

Spendolini-Sirieix said of Quan: “She’s 14 and she’s doing stuff like that. I don’t know what to add. When we were warming up and we were waiting to be called out, she was dancing, she was laughing, it looked like she had no nerves. She’s amazing.”

Spendolini-Sirieix, who was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year last year, is half French through her father and has her sights firmly set on the Paris Games in 2024.

She said of her performance: “It definitely gives me confidence for Paris. That is very close to my grandparents, so my whole family can come. Hopefully, Covid has gone because I want my family to come and watch. I am very, very excited.”