Rebecca Gallantree and Hannah Starling fell short of the podium at the European Diving Championships.
Duo happy despite missing out podium spots
Rebecca Gallantree and Hannah Starling failed to reach the podium places, leaving Great Britain's medal tally at one heading into the final day of the European Championships on Sunday.
Gallantree and Starling produced solid performances but never threatened the medals as they finished seventh and ninth respectively at the Pieter van den Hoogenband Centre in Eindhoven.
Gallantree, a World Cup finalist in February, had already indicated her intention to focus on her Olympic preparations as she trialled a slight change to her inward two-and-a-half somersault.
"It was good to get two good inwards in a competition like this," she said. "I've not used that dive for a couple of years - it was a really positive step towards London."
Gallantree improved on her morning's display, posting 286.40, as Sweden's Anna Lindberg claimed her second springboard title in as many days.
"It was still a steady performance just with that one drop in there. I can't be too disappointed," she said.
Gallantree and her 16-year-old team-mate Starling sealed two Olympic places at the World Cup and will now bid to fill them at next month's British National Championships, which double as Olympic trials, in Sheffield.
"I got my personal best at World Cup and I want to now take that place," said Starling, who scored 280.70 tonight.
"I'll need to break down a few dives and get them back up to my standard before then but I'm happy with this week."
Daley focus
Gallantree will again be in action on Sunday, alongside Alicia Blagg in the 3m springboard synchro, although British attention is set to fall on poster boy Tom Daley.
Daley, who turns 18 on Monday, will bid to reclaim the European 10m platform title he first won as a 13-year-old.
The former world champion will be firm favourite to do so after arriving in Holland in arguably career-best form.
He proved himself as the best of the rest behind China's untouchable world champion Qiu Bo at the recent World Series.
Daley claimed silver in the opening three legs before snatching gold, in Bo's absence, at the final meet in Mexico.
His run of podium places has provided Daley with the confidence boost that most of his team-mates have been unable to grasp this week.
With Olympic preparations moving into their final two months, Team GB had hoped to leave Holland with a handful of medals to underline their improvement.
An historic gold medal in the 10m synchro on Thursday night, when Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow ended Great Britain's 74-year wait for a female European title, is however, all they have to show so far.
Gallantree and Blagg could yet rectify that themselves, though, after they finished fifth in Budapest two years ago.
"I'm really looking forward to synchro tomorrow," Gallantree said. "We've changed the order of our list a little bit, there are some tactics there, so we'll see how that goes as a test for Nationals and beyond."
