Cassiel Rousseau rues 'pretty big stuff-up' that dashed medal hopes in men's 10m platform final

Australia's Cassiel Rousseau has narrowly missed out on a bronze medal despite a strong diving performance in the men's 10m platform diving final.

The 23-year-old expressed put himself in medal contention with big fifth and sixth dives - he was sitting second after his sixth – but was then forced to watch on as his rivals made their final dives.

Cao Yuan completed China's clean sweep of the diving competition, earning the country's eighth gold medal, while Japan's Rikuto Tamai took home the silver.

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Great Britain's Noah Williams was third, followed by Rousseau.

Rousseau managed to stay calm during his first three dives, holding steady in fourth place until the halfway mark.

But trouble hit after his back three-and-a-half somersaults with pike dive, which scored just 61.20—the lowest of the night for him. This dropped him to sixth place.

"Oh no Cass!," Sam Fricker said on Nine's commentary.

"You try your best but sometimes you try too hard."

Rousseau seemed to recover with a strong fifth dive, but it was clear he needed a miracle to secure a spot on the podium. And for a moment, it looked like he might get it after scoring a 92.50. The 23-year-old finished with a final total of 481.00.

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But his dreams were quickly dashed after Japan's Rikuto Tamai bounced back with a stunning dive, taking the silver with an overall score of 507.65.

Speaking to Nine, Rousseau said that fourth dive was a "pretty big stuff-up", but was still rapt with his performence.

"Coming into this I didn't think I would be up there at all," he said.

"The year that I have had, it hasn't been the best of years ... I'm actually very proud of myself today.

"I saw Noah (Williams) completely drill his dive and from then I knew I missed a medal, (but) I wanted to finish on a good one, which I did. I'm happy about that."

The final turned out to be far less predictable than anyone had anticipated, with a few unexpected mistakes from some of the top competitors.

Rousseau missed the medals by 16.35 points. Despite the close margin, he said he was only too happy to be there.

"Whenever I do a competition, I just want to have fun. Today I had fun, so to me it was a very successful day," Rousseau said.

"It will probably be a tough pill to swallow when I come back home and kind of realise the little mistakes that I made, but like I said, just from this year, not even thinking I was going to make a final and just coming fourth that's just incredible for me."

It was a competition marked by errors, with China's Yang Hao also having an unusually rough day.

Cao stepped up and finished strong, scoring 547.50 to claim gold. This win made him the first diver since America's Greg Louganis in 1988 to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in this event.

- with Damien McCartney