A disappointed Chris Mears has credited "absolutely sensational" Matthew Mitcham after the Australian was one of the divers to nudge him into fourth place in the Commonwealth Games 1m springboard final.

After qualifying earlier on Wednesday with the third-best score, England's Mears was leading after two rounds of the final before he fell out of the medal places going into the last round.

The 21-year-old pulled off a score of 73.50 to temporarily get into the medal places behind Grant Nel, but both were then ousted by Mitcham's 76.50 a dive later, with Mears's teammate Jack Laugher going on to take gold by over 45 points.

Reflecting on the tense finale afterwards, Mears told reporters: "It's awesome to go out here on a Commonwealth stage and keep up with the other guys that are putting up awesome lists with [a higher degree of difficulty] than I have," Mears told reporters earlier tonight.

"I always knew that my execution had to be higher than the rest if I was going to get on that podium. [I was] very, very close to getting there.

"I kind of thought I'd done it on my last dive and then Mitcham, the sneaky boy, came and absolutely nailed his reverse twist and hats off because it was an absolutely sensational dive. Then Grant just beat me with his tariff (of difficulty) so I was beaten fair and square today."

Mears and Laugher are favourite for gold in the synchronised 3m springboard, which takes place on Friday lunchtime at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.