Greeks grab their first gold

Greece won their first medal of the Athens Olympics on an evening of high drama and low comedy at the three metre synchronised springboard diving tonight.

The home pair of Thomas Bimis and Nikolaos Siranidis won gold after a no dive by the Chinese duo and a Russian hit his foot on the board in the final of the five rounds of diving.

That followed the invasion of the diving pool by man half-dressed in traditional Greek costume, who leapt into the pool to the cheers of the near-capacity crowd midway through the fourth round.

The odd events helped British pair Tony Ally and Mark Shipman, who had gone into the final sequence of dives in last place, leap up to fifth as they recorded a personal best.

Ally said: “We got a personal best, we performed absolutely outstandingly. The competition was bizarre, it was just unbelievable.

“We could have got a few more points here and there and finished better than fifth but I’m happy with the result.”