Daley dances off with worlds gold, silver

  Tom Daley held off Olympic champion Chen Aisen of China to add 10m platform gold to the silver he had won just hours earlier on Saturday at the world aquatic championships.

After taking silver with partner Grace Reid in the afternoon's 3m synchro springboard final for Britain, Daley went one better in the 10m platform to win a third worlds gold in his career.

"The 10m platform is my main event, so I made sure Grace and I were relaxed in the earlier final (the 3m synchro)," explained Daley after his gold win.

"We focused on having fun. We were dancing in the showers, singing along to the music in the stadium, which helped us both dive well.

"The volunteers behind the scenes must have thought I was crazy, dancing and singing to any music that came on."

Daley said he learnt the lessons from failing to qualify for the event's semi-finals at the Rio Olympics last year.

"The Olympics was one of the biggest lows in my career and I came here wanting to enjoy diving again," he said.

"I wanted to have the balance of life and diving after what happened in Rio, not get so stressed and focused on winning."

After his 10m victory, Daley ran straight to hug his coach Jane Figueiredo at Budapest's Duna Arena.

"Jane has had a pretty rough year -- she tore her Achilles tendon in March," said Daley.

"I ran to her because I wanted to hug someone who knew what this meant -- and she was hopping around on one leg celebrating with me."

- final pressure dive -

Daley led from the start and kept his nerve in the final round, producing a brilliant dive, a back three-and-a-half somersault pike, under pressure to secure the gold.

His score matched Chen's tally of a near-perfect 106.20pts after the Chinese had thrown down the gauntlet with a fantastic dive immediately before Daley.

"I saw the Chinese were celebrating after Chen's dive and I decided to do something about that," said Daley.

"It brought out the competitor in me, so I just stepped up and gave it my best."

The Brit sealed a brilliant display with a winning tally of 590.95pts from Chen, who took silver with 585.25pts, while China's Yang Jian won bronze with 565.15pts.

Chen's final dive produced a score of 10, 10, 9.5 out of ten, only to see Daley match that straight after.

"When I saw my points for the last dive, my first thoughts were 'I did it, I'm the champion!', but when Tom matched it, I was disappointing," admitted Chen.

It is the second time the 23-year-old Daley has won the 10m platform world title having also struck gold at the 2009 championships in Rome as a 15-year-old.

Daley also won gold in the team event at the 2015 world championships in Kazan.

Having announced himself on the world stage by competing as a 13-year-old at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Daley has built up a cult following.

Every dive at Budapest's Duna Arena was greeted with a roar in each round from the crowd, which was repeated when his score was flashed up confirming his first place.

With the diving section of the world aquatic championships now complete, Chinese divers won eight of the 13 events in Budapest.

source: AFP