Olympics: Men's springboard plagued by mishaps

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Germany's Stephan Feck was consigned to the blooper reel after he landed flat on his back on a night of diving mishaps in the first round of the men's springboard.

Feck's gaffe, which had already hit the internet before the competition finished, was the most notable error on a night even the Chinese came unstuck.

Feck slipped off the side of the board for his second dive, falling almost at right angles and spinning out of control before take a painful blow to his back.

The bombed dive drew scores of zero and while the 22-year-old reappeared, to generous applause, he retired soon after.



It was not the only zero of the night, however, as Great Britain's rising star Jack Laugher finished a forgettable Olympic debut by 'knee-buckling' off the board and landing legs first.

Laugher, ranked seventh in the world, missed the 18-diver cut-off for tomorrow morning's [Tuesday] semi-final with only Feck and Venezuela's Edickson Contreras Bracho faring worse.

Contreras was left in tears after his second aborted dive which was sensationally followed by a rare mishap by China's Qin Kai.

Qin, who was leading at the time, completely mis-timed his penultimate effort to trampoline forward and draw scores of 3.5.

British dive coach Adrian Hinchliffe admitted the competition had been riddled with mistakes but blamed it on the pressure of an Olympics.

"You saw that with the Chinese. Even they are not safe from the pressure of an Olympics."

Russia's Ilya Zakharov made the most of the mayhem to qualify first ahead of defending champion He Chong, who had been as low as ninth.