Ah, Olympic glory and madness: a balmy night at the diving pool, Bowie on the loudspeaker and, hanging in the chlorinated air, the possibility of one of the most fabulous Irish Olympic stories of all.
Oliver Dingley was supposed to merely show up and take part when he became the first man to dive for Ireland since Eddie Heron in 1948.
But in a stunning 24-hour period, he had bolder history in mind as he moved from the preliminaries, got through the morning semi-finals with a nerveless final dive and, in front of an amped-up local crowd, last night threatened to deliver a Billy Elliot story for Olympic diving.
For half of this Olympic three-metre springboard final, Ireland’s Oliver Dingley was in the running for a medal. That alone sets him apart as one of Ireland’s more remarkable Olympians.
For three rounds, he cast a spell and then it broke. Dingley looked slightly tentative on the board as he prepared for his fourth dive – a back 2½ somersault pike. Although he completed it cleanly and managed to straighten, the judging panel awarded him 69 points, a stark fall from his previous three dives which had been scored 74.4, 81.6 and 76.5 respectively. The deduction was enough to see him plummet to eighth in the overall leader board. Before that jump, Dingley had been just 0.2 of a point outside the third placing.
Mistakes punished
Few sports punish one mistake as elaborately and mercilessly as diving. Mexico’s Rommel Pacheco had come into this final after a dazzling repertoire of dives which had set him out as a likely medallist.
But he flamed out in his very first dive here and was out of the running after that. It was Great Britain’s Jack Laugher and Dingley, the Harrogate-raised athlete, who exploited the void left by Pacheco.
China’s Cao Yuan remained peerless throughout the six dives, bold in his range of difficulty and performances and flawless in his execution. It was clear from Monday’s preliminaries that unless Yuan suffered a catastrophic error, gold would most likely be his.
Voluble support
When Dingley reappeared on the board for his fifth dive, he needed something exceptional to revitalise his medal challenge. The 2½ somersault pike was greeted with a further reduction in his point total, 61.5.
For the small, fiercely voluble Irish support, it was like seeing magic dust disappear from the night. It seemed in keeping with the baffling, schizophrenic nature of Ireland’s Olympics story that what seemed like a novel side story – a Yorkshire man diving at three-metre springboard for Ireland – came tantalisingly close to historic achievement.
Annalise Murphy and the O’Donovans have confirmed a remarkable Irish Olympics on the water.
Now Dingley entered the mix. That fifth-round dive consolidated his position at eighth but left him a distant 50 points out of the medal reckoning.
Dingley’s grandmother grew up near Spike Ireland in Cork and he had the classic north of England Irish upbringing. But it was the acute disappointment of being left off Great Britain’s diving team four years ago that prompted him to declare for Ireland.
His performances in Rio may have made his former coaches wish they had pursued him a little more diligently.
He bowed out with a back 2½ somersault, 1½ twist pike and executed it perfectly, scoring 79.9. Little wonder that the BBC commentators were happy to reclaim Dingley at every opportunity.
There is no doubt that Ireland has been lucky to benefit from a fully formed diver. As Dingley twisted and sculpted his way through the air last night, it became apparent for the first time just how lucky.
