Chris Mears has squeezed into the men's three-metre springboard semi-finals.

The Southampton Diving Academy star was 21st at the halfway stage before he snuck through in 18th with a score of 436.05 to qualify for tomorrow morning's semi-final.

Mears,19, finished fifth alongside Nick Robinson-Baker in last week's 3m synchro final and was embraced by his delighted coach Lindsey Fraser, as well as his parents, after his performance in the individual competition at the Aquatics Centre.

But rising star Jack Laugher, ranked seventh in the world, suffered a shock exit in an error-strewn first round, failing to make the 18-diver cut-off.

Laugher, at 17 the youngest competitor in the field, appeared to be wracked by nerves in his first Olympics which ended with a failed dive and scores of zero.

A clearly distraught Laugher was left punching at the water as he finished 27th with a score of 330 - just over 140 points below his international best.

Junior world champion Laugher was not alone in enduring a forgettable night, however, as the competition was marked by some startling errors from the world's best divers.

Germany's Stephan Feck was forced to withdraw shortly after he completely bombed his second dive, almost jumping at right angles before landing flat on his back.

Venezuela's Edickson Contreras Bracho was left in tears after his second penalty for aborting a dive while even China's Qin Kai was not immune, relinquishing the lead after he drew scores of 3.5 for his mis-timed penultimate effort.

Until then Laugher had not made a major mistake, despite being well below his best, but slipped off the board on his final effort and failed to complete the dive.

Only Feck and Contreras Bracho were behind the teenager in the standings.

Russia's Ilya Zakharov made the most of a crazy night to qualify first ahead of defending champion He Chong, who had been as low as ninth.