Osmar Olvera Ibarra, 20, and Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez, 25, nearly pulled off the biggest upset in Olympic diving in years, in the men’s 3m synchro event on Friday. Had they succeeded, they would have claimed Mexico’s second Olympic diving gold medal in history, and its first since 1956.

Equally significant, the Mexican duo could have ended the People’s Republic of China’s quest to win an unprecedented eight (of eight) Olympic diving gold medals in Paris.

In the end, it came down to 2.07 points.

And, in the end, China won its fourth gold medal at the Paris Aquatics Centre with 446.10 points. Mexico took silver by scoring 444.03. Great Britain’s Jack Laugher, 29, and Anthony Harding, 24, claimed bronze with 438.15.

Round four is where the high drama began. China’s Long Daoyi, 21, and Wang Zongyuan, 22, threw their second-hardest dive and earned an unusually wide range of execution scores (from 9.0 to 5.0) from the six judges charged with assessing form. The five synchronization scores were more aligned, however. When the four highest and lowest execution scores were dropped and the two highest and lowest synchronization scores were scratched, the sum was multiplied by the degree of difficulty, and China was left with 77.70 points, which allowed Mexico pull into first place by a 0.36-point margin with its solid inward 3½ that scored 85.68.

“I made two twist errors,” Long said. “This should not have happened. This was my first Olympic and I was quite nervous. After the two errors, I struggled to find my confidence. But my teammate said, ‘What are you worried about? Just dive. Be ourselves.’”

Then the competition got blazing hot. Mexico’s last two dives were the hardest, carrying a 3.8 and 3.9 DD – just like the last two by Great Britain, who was comfortably in third.  China had to be nearly perfect on their dives to clinch the win and the nation’s fourth gold medal in Paris through four diving events. 

In round five, China matched Mexico’s score for its own inward 3½ (with 3.4 DD) to add 85.68 points.  Mexico then scored 84.36 for its forward 4½, with 3.8DD. So China led by 1.08 point with one dive to go.

It all came down to the final dive, and Mexico was last in the order. 

China nailed its forward 4½ for 95.76 points – a very high mark.  Great Britain scored 94.62 points on the same dive.  Mexico needed to score 96.84 or higher to capture gold, and had saved its hardest dive for last: a forward 2½  with 3 twists.

Celaya Hernandez and Olvera Ibarra took off under pressure in pin-drop silence. Their dive appeared to be very-very clean. It outscored the Brits, but came up just 2.07 points shy of eclipsing China’s total for the day.  The 94.77 mark brought the jubilant Mexican duo the silver instead.

When the final scores came up, Long said, “I was still in shock and I was still criticizing myself because the two mistakes should have not have been made. That’s why I wasn’t quite as excited, because I was still in a state of criticizing myself.”

Even at the press conference 90 minutes later, Long said, “I still haven’t pulled myself out of that state because I wanted to put on a better performance.”

Olvera Ibarra said of the silver, “We have one dream, one aim. We were very close to the Chinese results. They’re not unbeatable. We don’t have any secrets, we just work very-very hard. I think that’s the key to everything in life, not just diving.”

“Thank you to Mexico, everybody who has come to Paris to see us dive,” Olvera Ibarra added. “I would like to say: in 2012, I was still a spectator and I saw Mexican athletes win medals and I said, ‘I want to achieve exactly that.’ It would be wonderful if I have motivated youngsters in Mexico to follow this path. You have to fight every day but dreams do come true.”

Wang, acknowledging Mexico’s strong performance, said, “They dive with heart. They train with heart. We want to congratulate them for this. We are both pushing each other forward. Thank you for this great competition.”

China’s march toward eight gold diving medals resumes on Tuesday, with the fifth event: women’s 10m platform final.