This morning’s semi-final of the men’s 10m Individual Platform event saw young British Champion Thomas Daley secure his place in the final while Peter Waterfield struggled with injury and just missed the final.

Daley, who is the youngest member of the British Olympic team, had a slow start mirroring what his efforts in yesterday’s prelim. However, he knew he had to step up a gear to get into the final and with his third round dive, inward 3 ½ somersaults tucked, he scored well to move up from 16th to 13th.

The British Champion stated his intent to the rest of the field with his fourth dive, armstand back 3 somersaults tucked, as he showed his famous rip entry to score 9s and move to 9th place.

Daley’s back 3 ½ somersaults tucked continued in the same vein and as divers around him began to falter he capitalised with a total score of 89.10 to move up to 6th place.

The European Champion didn’t look as strong with his final dive (reverse 3 ½ somersaults tucked) but he knew he had almost secured his qualification and just needed to score well. His aerial work was good but he was over vertical on his entry. He scored 6s as he qualified for the Olympic final with a total score of 458.60 and a final placing of 8th.

Waterfield was clearly struggling with his injured shoulder throughout the semi-final and although he made an excellent start he didn’t look as sharp as his prelim performance.

His first dive, forward 3 ½ somersaults piked, gave him scores of  9s across the board and looked like he was going to continue to show his strength just as he did in the prelims.

However, he looked uncomfortable in his second round dive, armstand back 3 somersaults tucked, and dropped marks with a poor entry. The third round seemed to follow suit as he missed his entry and went through the water with his hands open as he missed his grab. Waterfield fell from 9th to 12th place after this dive.

He picked himself up for his fourth dive, back 3 ½ somersaults tucked, and scored 9s and two 10s with a very impressive dive and moved up to 7th place.

The Olympic silver medallist, missed his fifth round dive (reverse 3 ½ somersaults tucked) and scored poorly to fall just outside of the top twelve – the required placing for the final.

Waterfield was unable to claw himself up the leader board after a poor entry on his final dive, back 2 ½ somersaults 2 ½ twists piked, and found his himself just missing out on the Olympic final in 13th place with a score of 430.95.

-ENDS-

For further details contact British Swimming Media Officer Gemma Field on 01509 632262, 07917 726431 or email gemma.field@swimming.org

British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association). British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.