PLYMOUTH divers Tom Daley and Tonia Couch missed out on reaching the podium in the synchro events on the opening day of the FINA/NVA World Series event in Beijing.

Daley and his diving partner Dan Goodfellow finished fourth in the men’s 10m event at the Water Cube, which was the venue for the 2008 Olympic Games.

It was the first time the duo had not won a medal at a competition since teaming up together at the start of last year.

They paid for a slow start in China, with their two compulsory rounds costing them a top three finish.

The Olympic bronze medallists finished with a points total of 409.59, with the Russian pair of Viktor Minibaev and Aleksandr Bondar taking bronze with 415.50.

The Chinese pair of Aisen Chen and Hao Yang were miles in front of the rest of the field, scoring an impressive 488.85 points.

Silver went to the experienced German duo of Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein with 419.10.

Daley still has two more chances of a medal in Beijing. He will competed in the mixed three-metre synchro on Saturday with Grace Reid and then take part in the men’s individual 10m event on Sunday.

There was also disappointment for Couch and her synchro partner Lois Toulson (pictured top) at the opening World Series event in China.

They had to settle for fifth place on Friday morning in the women’s 10m platform competition with a score of 294.72 points.

The British duo had gone into the final round in joint third place but a poor last dive of just 56.64 points saw their medal hopes disappear.

Home favourites Qian Ren and Yani Chang won with 340.26 points, ahead of Malaysia’s Pandelela Pamg and Jun Hoong Cheng on 316.92 and North Korea’s Kuk Hyang Kim and Mi Rae Kim with 313.92.