Britain's Tonia Couch and Stacie Powell find harmony despite defeat in Beijing Olympics

Britain's Tonia Couch and Stacie Powell find harmony despite defeat in Beijing Olympics

Diving pair Tonia Couch and Stacie Powell failed to improve on the performance of Tom Daley and Blair Aldridge as they too finished in last place in the synchronised 10 metre platform final.

Britain's Tonia Couch and Stacie Powell find harmony despite defeat in Beijing Olympics

Falling: Tonia Couch (right) and Stacie Powell miss out Photo: Bloomberg

But both girls claimed there was no longer any ill- feeling in the diving camp following the men's event. ''We're all one happy family,'' they said.

A rift between the men's pair appeared to have opened up after 14-year-old Daley reprimanded Aldridge for taking a mobile phone call from his mother before their final dive. Aldridge, 26, then said that the pressure surrounding the event had proved too much for Daley.

No such disharmony was in evidence after the women's event. Despite finishing eighth, they were pleased with their performance and Powell said: "We felt a bit frustrated with our syncro marks, we felt they were worth more than the judges were giving us. But that's sport for you. We'll go home and work on our dives, putting the experience to good use for 2012."

They were in fifth place at the end of the penultimate round. But their final dive was disappointing and they slipped down the order, the gold going to the Chinese pair of Xin Wang and Ruolin Chen.

Britain's Gemma Spofforth, meanwhile, came very close to adding to Britain's medal tally in the 100 metres backstroke in Beijing's Water Cube. Spofforth finished just four-hundredths of a second behind bronze medallist Margaret Hoelzer from the United States as fellow American Natalie Coughlan retained her title ahead of Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry. Spofforth's time of 59.38sec was a new European record.