Fans and commentators felt the pain just watching Sri Lanka diving star Dunlanjan Kaushalya Fernando misjudge his effort before belly flopping into the pool at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
On Thursday, Fernando left BBC commentators wincing after he somersaulted and flopped into the pool during the 1-metre springboard. The Sri Lankan prepared for his jump in Round 6 with several large bounces before launching himself into the air.
While performing a combination of impressive backward spins, disaster struck as Fernando smashed into the water face-down after he was unable to straighten his body out at the right moment before the diver crashed face-down into the pool. Fernando’s error came as he mistimed a 2.5 somersault tuck, landing horizontally to cap off his performance.
Fernando scored just one point, and his attempt was met with sympathetic reactions from former British athlete Leon Taylor on commentary.
The dive drew gasps from the audience and commentators, although Fernando appeared to be unhurt as he pulled himself out of the water to compose himself.
“Just showing us how difficult this dive is and how difficult diving is,” said 2002 silver medalist Taylor amidst a small chuckle. “That's lucky it's on the one metre because he's winded.”
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The judges’ rather harsh scores for the 3.0 difficulty dive were greeted by heavy boos from the crowd, with Fernando’s efforts clearly winning over the crowd. Fernando finished with a total score of 188.15 as the last and 11th overall diver.
The Sri Lankan is still able to compete in Friday’s final as there are only 11 competitors in his category. Australian Li Shixin finished top of the competitors in the qualifying rounds with a score of 388.70.
The home crowd in Birmingham were also treated to some fabulous dives from Scotland’s James Heatly, with the 25-year-old going second thanks to his impressive performance - just 1.15 adrift off Shixin.
England’s Jordan Houlden was in third at the closing stages after overtaking compatriot Jack Laugher, who concluded the round in fourth.
After the event, Heatly said: “I just wanted to be consistent with my dives and that was good. 387 is good for the prelims, but it was all about shaking off the nerves and I’ve done that.
“I’m not a betting man but the top group of us there do similar dives so it’s going to be down to who does the best quality dives.”
