Outspoken diving coach Foley blasts Beijing judges for 'crucifying' GB pair

The plain-speaking Australian felt that undue leniency had been shown to some of the competition faced by Nick Robinson-Baker and Ben Swain, who came in seventh behind the Chinese victors.

His words came in the wake of Tom Daley's spat with partner Blake Aldridge, not to mention the allegations of bias made by boxing team head Terry Edwards against the judges after bantamweight Joe Murray's first round loss on Tuesday to a Chinese fighter.

In synch: Swain (top) and Robinson-Baker

'That was a great performance today and if you can understand the judging better than me then you're an expert because I can't explain it,' said Foley of an international marking panel that did not include any Chinese.

'In the judging we are getting crucified and I don't know why. The boys today missed one dive a little bit and they finished seventh. Some of the other teams missed two dives and they finished higher.

'It's reputation. It's almost like here are the big teams and here's where we are going to give our nines. Hopefully by London 2012 our divers will have been around for a bit and be better known and they'll also have some crowd support.

'They weren't good enough to have won a medal today but they should have been right in the middle and they didn't get a look-in. They finished ten or twelve points off a medal. They dived better than that.

'Sometimes I get divers coming to me ask me why they have been marked that way and I can explain it but this time I'm scratching my head.'

The American duo of Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino, who ended up finishing fourth, appeared to be particularly generously treated on at least one dive.

Robinson-Baker and Swain - watched by Daley and Aldridge sitting next to each other - paid heavily for their slight lack of synchronicity on their fourth effort out of the six, an inward two and a half somersault with a pike that effectively ended their medal chances.

Swain, however, did not choose to dwell on the marking, saying, 'You're so busy during the competition you don't have the time to think about the judging. It was just an amazing experience.'