Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson wrote their name into the Great Britain record books with a history-making silver medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
The pair clinched a podium spot in the women's 10m synchronised diving event with a total of 311.76, thereby becoming the first-ever world medallists for GB in women's diving.
In doing so, Spendolini-Sirieix and Toulson also punched their tickets to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, continuing a streak of stellar results over the past 12 months.
The duo memorably took gold in the 10m synchro at the European Championships last year, during which Spendolini-Sirieix also won 10m individual gold after clinching the Commonwealth Games title in the same competition.
"It's incredible. I'm so proud of us. We have achieved so many goals - we got the Paris spot [for the 2024 Olympic Games], we got more than 300 points, we improved on the prelims and then adding to history is a beautiful moment," BBC Sport quotes the 18-year-old as saying.
Meanwhile, Toulson now has two world medals to her name after also placing second in the 2017 mixed synchro alongside Matty Lee, and the 23-year-old was overjoyed to end her six-year wait for another podium finish.
THEY HAVE DONE IT! A Paris 2024 place & HISTORY MADE with World🥈!@LoisToulson & Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix become the first 🇬🇧 divers to win a World Championship medal in a women's event EVER!
— Nick Hope - the athlete's journalist (@NickHopeTV) July 16, 2023
They prove their Olympic medal winning potential & here's the moment they did👇 pic.twitter.com/dI09JJXNGP
"I think I can speak for both of us [when I say] that we are over the moon," Toulson added. "Coming into this competition, we both knew that we could do it, but that sometimes makes it worse.
"I've been after a world medal for a while now, so to finally come away with one next to Andrea with a good performance, it makes all the hard work feel worth it."
Spendolini-Sirieix and Toulson held their second-placed ranking throughout each of their six routines, and they assured themselves of a silver with a strong final dive of a back two-and-a-half somersaults with one-and-a-half twists.
However, the Britons were no match for the Chinese duo of Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan, who comfortably stormed to the title with 369.84 on the board, finishing 58.08 clear of the runners-up.
The United States' Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell's overall score of 294.42 was good enough for a bronze medal, while Mexico just missed out on a spot in the top three with 291.18.
Spendolini-Sirieix and Toulson's silver adds to Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding's second-placed finish in the men's 3m synchro final on Saturday, and the former two are now gearing up for the individual 10m platform final on Tuesday.
Ben Knapton
