Dive star Daley just misses medals after promising start..
TEENAGE diving star Tom Daley refused to blame partner Pete Waterfield last night after a disastrous dive blew the British pair’s chance of gold in the men’s 10m synchronised platform event at London 2012.
Daley, 18, and Waterfield, 31, led a strong field after three of their six dives at the Aquatics Centre, only to end up without a medal after the elder Englishman over-rotated on their reverse triple somersault fourth effort.
Chinese favourites Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan – both younger than Daley – took gold ahead of Mexico and USA, with Team GB fourth.
“We’re a team,” said Daley, who was famously blamed by partner Blake Aldridge after they came last in the final at the Beijing Games four years ago. “At the end of the day, that’s it. Full stop. We win together and we lose together.”
Waterfield admitted apologising to Daley, who returns to the pool a week on Friday for the 10m individual platform dive.
He said: “There was no blame. After that fourth dive I actually said ‘sorry, mate’ to Tom, and he said ‘don’t worry, we’ve got our next one and we need a big one’. We did [it] but unfortunately it just wasn’t big enough to get back.”
Roared on by a fervent home support, Daley and Waterfield exceeded expectations with their near-perfect start, making the subsequent stumble all the more agonising.
The Devon youngster added: “After three dives we were on the highest score we’ve ever got, but then we missed the fourth dive and in this competition and this field you can’t afford to miss any dives.”