SOUTHAMPTON’S Chris Mears is happy to be taking a break after failing to reach an individual final for the second time at the World Championships.

Mears was among the first members of the British Gas GBR Diving Team in action in Barcelona, taking to the 1m springboard for the preliminary round last weekend with Jack Laugher.

Both failed to advance to the final, placing 16th and 19th respectively before Mears returned for the 3m synchro with partner Nick Robinson-Baker and just missed out on a medal.

They finished eighth in the final but Mears, pictured, still had one last event, the 3m individual, where he would again join Laugher as the British representatives at the iconic Piscina Municipal de Montjuïc yesterday.

This time Laugher advanced out of the preliminaries and into the semi-finals in first while Mears was ranked 31st and with plenty of food for thought on his break before returning to training.

“My first dive was really good. I’m really happy with a lot of things actually. I had a bit of a dodgy hurdle, though, which left me in an uncomfortable place for my reverse three and a half,” he said.

“That was playing on my mind a bit when I took off and that caused me to go quite short of vertical on that dive. That’s where it went downhill really.

“I scored 15 points for it instead of 60 or 70. It is a new dive for me this year. I know I can do it well but it didn’t happen which is unfortunate but that sort of thing happens in competition.

“I did a good reverse twist for 70 points which I was really pleased with. I tried a little too hard on the inward and came up short which was really annoying.

“I’ve got a little bit of a break now which is good because I’ve had such a busy year. I’ve had 22 events this year which is a positive thing.”

Mears placed ninth in the 3m individual at the London 2012 Olympics, less than a week after he and Robinson-Baker had finished fifth in the synchro. And, while he couldn’t match such a finish in Barcelona, Mears insists simply being able to look back on that performance in London gives him confidence.

“When I was at the Olympics I scored 100 points on front and consistently scored 90 points on it. I know I can do it well and I’ve scored over 90 four times,” he added.

“It’s just about focusing on training now, maybe looking at some new dives. I’m looking forward to next year. “It’s the Commonwealth Games obviously which will be amazing so I’ll train for that.”

Britain’s athletes are funded by UK Sport as the nation’s high performance sports agency responsible for the strategic investment of £355million of National Lottery and Exchequer funding in Olympic and Paralympic sports preparing for Rio 2016. The ambition is to win more medals than in London 2012 while building a stronger more sustainable high performance system. www.uksport.gov.uk