91Èȱ¬

Britain's Tom Daley and Jack Laugher won synchronised 3m springboard gold at the World Junior Diving Championship in Australia with a score of 338.85.

Laugher, 17, from Ripon, won individual gold on Monday, while Daley, 18, from Plymouth, was competing in the event for the first time.

"It's a big surprise really," Daley told 91Èȱ¬ Sport.

"It's my first-ever world junior gold medal and it's crazy to think that it's come in the springboard!"

He added: "It's something that I do mainly for fun and we were doing the competition just as a fun event and almost as a warm-up really and we've surprised ourselves."

Laugher said: "We've only had a few days training together in Plymouth before we flew to the world juniors and we've been grabbing 10 minutes where we can at the end of each session so it's been a little bit mad, but we've got it together and it's paid off."

The teenager endured a difficult Olympic debut this summer, failing to progress from the individual 3m preliminaries when he was expected to have a chance of reaching the final.

"The summer was obviously really disappointing for me I was obviously gutted and devastated that it went that way and it was so far from what I had hoped for," Laugher told 91Èȱ¬ Sport.

"The main focus for this competition was to put everything that's happened behind me and show that I'm still a good competitor, so I'm really happy that I can finish the season on a high note."

British Diving's junior development manager Julian Bellan paid tribute to the performance of Laugher and Daley, who finished 30.93 points clear of Russian silver medallists Ilia Kuzmin and Maxim Popkov.

"It was a great effort," said Bellan. "When you come to the Worlds you obviously want to deliver your very best performers and on paper the two guys are head and shoulders ahead of the rest of our divers.

"The guys only came together three weeks ago, but they've worked really hard and were really determined."

The result continues an impressive year for Daley, who won individual 10m platform Olympic bronze in London and claimed the European crown in May.

He will compete in the World Junior 10m platform event in Adelaide on Saturday.

"I had two weeks off after the Games so compared to some of the other athletes my preparation hasn't been quite as solid," admitted Daley.

"I'm looking forward to going out there, though, and if I continue to land them as I have been doing this week, hopefully I'll get a good performance out of it."