The 21-year-old former Garland and Willink School pupil narrowly missed out on a trip to the podium after finishing fourth in the final of the men’s 1m springboard.

But back on the boards of the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh with best mate Laugher, he made no mistake second time around.

The pair scored 431.94 points from their six dives to put them comfortably out front ahead of Australia’s Grant Nel and Matthew Mitcham. And Mears, who was given only a five per cent chance of survival after rupturing his spleen in Australia in 2009, admitted the win was particularly special.

“I was absolutely gutted with the 1m – it was a personal best for me but I was so close to the bronze medal that it put some pressure on,” said Mears.

“We knew what we could do in the final, we knew what we had to do, so it was just about what the other guys did on the day.

“We put up a really good score – it was absolutely fantastic and I’m so pleased. It means everything.

“I learned a lot from what happened with me losing my spleen and all the shenanigans that went on with that – I probably wouldn’t have made the London 2012 Olympics if I hadn’t gone through that.

“I was a bit of a doss at school and wasn’t working hard in training, so it made me step up and realise that life only happens once and you have to work hard if you want to achieve your dreams.”

The hard graft is not over for Mears and Laugher, who only started diving competitively this year, with the European Championships in Berlin fast approaching.

And, while that is his next target, Mears is already thinking longer ahead with plans for success on the world stage with Laugher – now a double Commonwealth champion after success in the 1m.

“We’ve got the Europeans after this, so we’ve got to go and smash that and see what we can do there – that will be a pretty tough one,” he added.

“Then we’ll have a couple of weeks off before smashing up training and I’ll get strong to try and jump as high as Jack. The aim is to eventually get up there with the Chinese.”

Commonwealth Games England (CGE) leads and manages the participation of the Team England at the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games. They work with sports, Sponsors and Sport England to support the development of athletes and their sports, and to achieve success at Games-time.