Emily, Enzo and Howardine seemed friendly enough - from my vantage point outside the sand sharks’ tank at the National Aquarium in Plymouth.
More than 1,000 fish were there to keep them company, with a safety team of two scuba divers and a free diver overhead on hand to protect Tom Daley. Just in case.
We still had a brief scare as one shark eluded the safety divers and swam directly at Tom, passing within inches of the diving star of Beijing as he was treading water.
Tom’s father Rob could not bear to look. To shrieks from the watching crowd, Tom - one of Sportsmail’s Magnificent Seven we are tracking to London 2012 - dived again, blissfully unaware of the drama.
What is it they say about working with animals?
Sand sharks can eat lobsters, crab and squid .... but not Olympians, apparently. There have been no records of attacks by sand sharks, or so it says on the internet.
As Tom reached my depth to pose for his picture, the sharks became shy and retreated to the back of the aquarium.
It meant some photo-editing was required to recapture the moment a courageous young boy dared swim in the same tank as thousands of sea bream and three 12-foot sharks.
