Stacie Powell (Southampton Diving) and Tonia Couch (Plymouth Diving) became the first British divers to realise their Olympic dreams after winning the women's 10m individual event with a personal best score at the Diving Trials in Leeds.
Competing against British Champions Monique McCarroll (Southampton Diving) and Sarah Barrow (Plymouth Diving), Powell and Couch had to keep their nerve to seal their nomination to this year's Olympic squad.
Powell and Couch went into an early lead with excellent required dives and scored nines on their first inward dive. McCarroll and Barrow closed the gap on the leaders with an impressive inward 3 ½ Somersaults in the third round but couldn't quite make up for their dropped second round dive.
Powell and Couch secured their nomination to Team GB with a final score of 324.72, while McCarroll and Barrow finished just three points behind them with 321.72.
"I just can't believe it," Couch said. "I was fine until I saw the reaction of my friends and family and now I am quite emotional. In all honesty, we didn't think we were going to make it against such high quality competition.
"I was quite nervous when I went onto the board for the final dive knowing how close Monique [McCarroll] and Sarah [Barrow] were to us. I just wanted to keep focused and do what needed to be done. I tried to see it as just a display dive, this took the pressure off me and it worked because we got some good scores on the last dive."
"It just hasn't sunk in for me yet," Powell said. "That was a personal best score for us and I think the whole situation will hit me when I speak to my family and friends.
"When we didn't qualify for the World Cup in February we went back to the basics and broke all of our dives down. We looked at all aspects of each of our dives and worked on our technique to make sure it was the same. We have been feeling good in training and I am so happy with how today went for us."
Carol and Helen Galashan (Both City of Leeds), who competed at their first international competition together just a week ago, finished in third place with an excellent score of 304.71.
Divers will compete again tomorrow vying for selection in the Women's 3m and Women's 10m Individual while those currently waiting to be selected in the remaining events will deliver a display of what they intend to dive in Beijing.
The action at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds will see Britain's divers trying to add themselves to the Olympic squad.
