DIVING sensation Chris Mears has told The Chronicle the confidence gained from his world class performance on the Olympic stage will stand him in good stead as he looks forward to Rio 2016.

But for now, the Burghfield Common teenager plans to rest and recuperate after competing in two finals in seven days at London's Aquatics Centre. Chris came fifth with Nick Robinson-Baker last week in the men's 3m synchronised springboard and ninth on Tuesday in the singles event.

He was the only Briton to make the final, after sterling efforts in the preliminary round and semi-final, and won the biggest cheer of the night from the home faithful when his final dive gained him a personal best score of 100.70 points.

It is the first time a British diver has topped the 100point mark off the 3m board in Olympic history.

The 19-year-old said: "It was absolutely fantastic, it was great a feeling to just be in the final amongst the greatest divers in the world. I looked up to many of those, like He Chong when I was younger and thoroughly enjoyed being up against them at that stage of the competition.

"I'm not happy with all of my dives but my best dive was really good and that gives me a lot of confidence. I will be looking forward to Rio but that is a few years away and I'm now going to learn a couple of new dives to get my difficulty up, that will help me get bigger scores."

The Olympic debutant said he had never dived that well before and put it partly down to the unwavering support from the crowd. Chris, a former Willink School pupil, added: "When I was stood on the board, I could not help myself from smiling and being really happy and I think my results benefited from that."