CHRIS Mears may have missed out on a synchro medal at the World Championships yesterday but the Southampton diver insists he will take great confidence into his individual final later in the week.

Going into the sixth and final round of the 3m synchro final in Barcelona the British Gas GBR diving pair of Mears and Nick Robinson-Baker sat fifth, hopeful of closing in on the Mexican duo of Jahir Ocampo and Rommel Pacheco, who took a surprise bronze.

But Robinson-Baker’s inwards three and a half somersault misfired costing them dear and they ended up eighth overall with a score of 391.53points.

The British pair had qualified for the final in seventh and looked on as all but the Chinese pair of Hai Qin and Chong He struggled to produce their best.

But despite failing to make the podium Mears was full of praise for his partner after the event.

“I feel like me and Nick performed really well, individually I dived pretty good but my reverse twist was a little bit long,” he said.

“But Nick saved me because he nailed his dive and then in the inward dive at the end just let us down towards the end.

“Anything can happen, unfortunately our last dive was not the best but we can keep our heads high.

“We were watching the events behind the scenes and it was just exciting, we knew that the field was closer than it would have been.

“For the 3m individual event, I have done all my dives in synchro really well so I can take that forward into the individual competition and hopefully replicate that.”