Jack Laugher believes mistakes have become an unintended consequence of his attempt to "pursue perfection" after a disappointing sixth-place finish in the men's three-metre springboard final at the European Aquatics Championships.
The Yorkshireman, who won silver in the same event at Rio 2016, was unable to impress the judges in Budapest and his score of 464.6 was some way off the winning total of 525.2, made by Russia's Evgeny Kuznetsov.
He believes the quick turnaround in events – he and Daniel Goodfellow claimed gold in the synchronised three-metre event at last week's FINA World Cup in Tokyo – may have contributed to his underwhelming display on Friday night.
Not to be for @JamesHeatly who had to settle for fourth in the 3m final 💦@JackLaugher came sixth as the two Brits missed out on the medals pic.twitter.com/cYqcxEvMeM — Team GB (@TeamGB) May 14, 2021
Laugher was upstaged by fellow Briton James Heatly, who finished two places higher, but the 26-year-old stayed level-headed about the result and insisted he has plenty of time to get back to his best before the Olympics.
Laugher, who took silver in the one-metre springboard earlier this week, said: "I think for me it's been so long since we competed.
"In Japan at the World Cup last week we really prioritised that as our main focus and with the Olympics being in Tokyo we wanted to gain as much experience and do as well as we possibly could.
"Coming here for another major straight away has been really difficult, as we've had no events for a year and then back to back majors.
"It's very hard and I think a lot of things have changed in my diving in the last two years and I think I've created some mistakes trying to pursue perfection.
A quality final dive takes @LoisToulson and Eden Cheng into the Women's 10m Synchro silver position! 🥈😍 A hard earned European medal, matching the colour the one they won recently at the Tokyo World Cup 💪 — British Swimming (@britishswimming) May 14, 2021
"I have nine weeks now before we leave for the Olympics and that's a huge amount of time.
"I draw a huge amount of confidence from how well I dived in Tokyo with Dan. I know this week hasn't been what I'm used to with Europeans but I'll focus on what we did in Japan and use this as a learning process."
Kuznetsov's fellow Russian Nikita Shleikher claimed silver while Germany's Martin Wolfram pipped Heatly to bronze.
Elsewhere, British duo Lois Toulson and Eden Cheng added synchronized 10m platform silver to the World Cup equivalent they won a week ago. The pair finished behind Russian duo Ekaterina Beliaeva and Yulia Timoshinina.
Toulson said: "With diving anything can happen, but if we're selected for the Olympics I think we definitely have the potential to medal."
