Paris 2024: Jake Passmore narrowly misses out on diving semi-final

Ireland's Jake Passmore narrowly missed out of a place in the men’s 3m springboard diving semi-final in Paris.

Passmore’s was just 2.25 points away from progressing from the heats at his first OIympics. He finished in 21st place overall with only the top 18 qualifying for the semi-finals.

The19-year-old’s points total of 360.90 was agonisingly close to the 18th placed total of the Dominican Republic’s Jonathan Ruvalcaba who qualified for the semi-final with his score of 363.15.

Passmore started strongly and was in 11th place after his first four dives, his best of which was a forward 2½ somersaults with two twists.

However as the event reached a climax Passmore was unable to maintain his spot inside the top 18 and with two disappointing final dives, he slipped outside the qualifying places.

Needing to put up a big score with his final dive, the teenager went for a difficult option – a forward 4½ somersaults – but his score of 49.40 was the lowest of his six dives.

Speaking to RTÉ Sport afterwards, Passmore insisted that he enjoyed the experience despite having missing out on progressing.

"It's a bit of mixed emotions, it could have been better but it’s not a terrible performance for my first Olympics.

"I felt prepared and I felt like I’d done enough. I just came here to enjoy the experience and hopefully I’ll be back for the next couple.

"I know what dives could have been better but I’m not really sure where I could have improved my performance yet. I’ll probably look back at this for the next couple of weeks and then come back with an answer.

"I’m hoping to get a couple more [Olympics] under my belt and I’ll hopefully improve every time."

One of the more unusual parts of Passmore's diving routine has been his warm-up where he's