PLYMOUTH diving stars Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow were forced to settle for sixth place in the second FINA/NVC World Series event in Dubai.

The Great Britain pair improved on their score from Beijing the previous week but finished one place lower than in China.

In a tight and high-standard final in Dubai, just 19 points separated all the teams.

China’s Ruolin Chen and Huixia Liu won the event with 324.66 points, ahead of Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion on 321.27 and Malaysia’s Jun Hoong Cheong and Mun Yee Leong on 315.18. Couch and Barrow scored 305.04 – a 16 point improvement from Beijing.

They were third after the two compulsory rounds, having producing the top dive in the second round, but they dropped down to sixth after the third and they could not pull it back, despite scoring 72.96 for their final dive.

The pair dived really consistently in Dubai but so did everyone else, with no team scoring less than 64.80 in the final three rounds.

Australia’s Melissa Wu and Lara Tarvit were fourth with 312.72 and Mexico’s Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco were fifth with 308.40.

Couch tweeted after the competition: “Thought Sarah Barrow and I dived better than what we scored today! Oh well onwards and upwards.”

The duo will compete in the individual event on Saturday and unlike in Bejiing, Couch and Barrow are drawn in separate semi-finals.

Couch will face competition from China’s Chen, Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong, Australia’s Tarvit and Ukraine’s Yulia Prokopchuk, while Barrow will be up against Canadian’s Filion and Benfeito, Australian Wu, China’s Liu and Mexico’s Alejandra Orozco for a top three spot.

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