BBC commentator begs judges to penalise diver after near-catastrophic incident

BBC commentator Leon Taylor pleaded with the judges to penalise Italian diver Maia Biginelli after a 'dangerous' incident at the Olympics. Biginelli came agonisingly close to smashing her head on the diving board after botching an attempt in the women's individual 10 metre platform event.

The 21-year-old pulled out all the stops in her bid to reach the final by trying a three-and-a-half somersaults inward dive in the tuck position. It nearly went horribly wrong, though, with her head coming within a whisker of the board as she attempted to pull off the difficult trick.

Taylor, who won a silver medal for Team GB at the Olympics in 2004, was left shocked by the near-calamity and begged the judges to intervene and punish Biginelli for the 'dangerous' dive.

"Judges, you need to do your job now," he said. "You didn't do it this morning. Do your job now. That is a dangerous, dangerous dive. Her hair hits the diving board, she should be massively penalised for that. Her hair pretty much hits the board.

"What are you watching from your seats? What are you watching? We've got a duty of care in this sport to keep athletes safe. You've got to penalise. Coaches, you can see that as well."

Biginelli was awarded a relatively low score of 41.60 on her way to finishing in last place at the end of her semi-final. She looked sheepish as she made her way out of the pool before chatting with her coaches, who appeared to show her a replay on a small screen.

Another BBC commentator echoed Taylor's comments, adding: "They’re showing her the replay now, so hopefully she can process that herself because that was frightening to watch."

It was a productive semi-final for Team GB, with Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix making it through to maintain her hopes of winning another Olympic medal. Lois Toulson, who teamed up with Spendolini-Sirieix to claim bronze in the women’s synchronised 10m platform last week, narrowly missed out.

The latter, who is the daughter of First Dates chef Fred Sirieix, finished third behind Chinese duo Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi with a score of 367. Toulson, meanwhile, came 13th with a score of 278.5 but is first reserve for the final, meaning she will be entitled to a place if any of the 12 finalists drop out.