Great Britain's Gary Hunt wins high diving silver in Barcelona

Gary Hunt won Great Britain's first medal at the World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, claiming silver in the high diving.

The three-time World Series champion, 29, lost out on gold by just 0.90 of a point to Colombia's Orlando Duque.

"I'm disappointed not to be on the top of the podium," admitted Hunt.

The Paris-based diver held a 38.30-point lead over Duque going into the final round but a poor entry ended his title hopes.

In the previous round, Hunt had stunned the crowd by scoring an impressive 170.1 points for landing the most difficult dive in the world - a backwards triple somersault with four twists routine.

"I put that dive early and knew it would be make-or-break," said Hunt, who scored 589.30. "I'm really pleased with how it went.

"Unfortunately the finish [final dive] wasn't quite there, but I did four good dives and that got me on to the podium, so I'm still happy."

Mexico's Jonathan Paredes took the bronze medal with 578.35, while Britain's Matt Cowen (539.66) and Blake Aldridge (443.15) finished fifth and 10th respectively.

"Going through the rounds, I felt fantastic but on the last dive everything was really tight and it wasn't quite 100%," Cowen told BBC Sport.

The sport was making its debut at a World Aquatics Championships, but is not currently an Olympic sport, which means none of the British divers get financial support from British Swimming.

"It's a massive step for the sport to have this competition as part of the World Championships and hopefully it's a step in the right direction towards the Olympics," said Hunt.

Aldridge, who admitted he was "gutted" after finishing 10th, added: "It's really frustrating not being recognised by British Swimming, especially when you see other nations being supported.

"We're competing for Great Britain and it would have been nice to be competing in a pair of GB trunks, but it wasn't to be this time. Hopefully it will be in the future."

The next event for the British divers will be the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Boston on 25 August.