Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow earn European diving silver

Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow secured silver, but surrendered their European 10m synchronised diving crown.

The Plymouth-based pair won gold at last year's European Diving Championships and led for the first two rounds this year in Rostick, Germany.

However, they slipped behind Yulia Koltunova and Natalia Goncharova after a poor third round dive.

The Russians won with 315.66 points to Couch and Barrow's 306.24, with Germans Maria Kurjo and Julia Stolle third.

"We're disappointed with the third dive, that's pretty much my fault," said Barrow, 24, who was fourth in the individual 10m platform final on Wednesday.

"We're training together all the time though now and we're getting better I think, we just need to work on a few individual dives a little more."

Her team-mate Couch, 24, added: "We did a really good first two dives and then our optionals need a bit more attention but it's not our time to peak yet, that's at the World Championships."

The Barcelona Worlds in four weeks' time will present the pair, who were fifth at the London Olympics last summer, with the opportunity to test themselves against the very best divers.

Couch and Barrow finished fourth at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai and believe that despite errors in the European final, they can become the first British women to win a world diving medal.

"We definitely can," stated two-time Olympian Couch.