Friday, April 9, 2010

Tom Daley has sights on 2010 Commonwealth Games gold

Diver Tom Daley says he will spend 2010 perfecting two new dives - but still has his sights set on a synchronised gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
Daley will only compete in the 10m platform World Series in Mexico next week and in Sheffield on 23-24 April.
But the world champion, 15, says the Delhi Games are still in his sights.
"I will focus on getting my new dive secure and once I have got that sorted, then towards the Commonwealths I can think of synchro again," he said.
Daley's latest dives, the back two-and-a-half somersault, two-and-a-half twists and the armstand back triple somersault pike, have a higher difficulty tariff which, if executed well, can earn him higher marks from the judges.
The teenager performed both dives at the season-opening World Series event in Qingdao last month, where he finished fourth out of eight competitors, earning more points than the dive that won him a shock gold medal at the World Championships in Rome last year.

And he will again attempt both dives next week at the second World Series event in Veracruz, Mexico before performing in front of his home crowd in Sheffield at Pond's Forge in a fortnight.
"In China, it [the back two-and-a-half somersault dive] was the highest scoring dive I did, I pulled it off at preliminaries and the semi-final," said Daley.
"But it takes a lot to get your head around the dives, so I need to do them more and more in competition and try to get the hang of it.
"It's about developing technique and, because it's new, it's quite scary. But with more practice, I will be able to jump up more on the start and be more confident."
Daley has a busy schedule in the next 12 months with the World Cup in May, the National and European Championships in the summer, with a potential trip to Singapore for the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore sandwiched between the Commonwealth Games in India in the autumn.

And next year will see Daley defend his world 10m crown in Shanghai in July, the first qualifying event for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
With so much emphasis on the individual event, Daley has chosen to place the synchronised event on hold, leaving diving partner Max Brick, with whom he finished ninth at the World Championships, to compete with Pete Waterfield.
The 2004 Olympic silver medallist beat Daley at the British Gas National Cup in Sheffield in February, when the teenager first unveiled his latest dives.
However, Daley hopes that if Waterfield can master his two latest dives, the duo could unleash them on a world stage.

"Once I have got my dives sorted and someone else has the same degree of difficulty of dive then I start focusing on synchro," added Daley.
"Pete is an amazing diver and hopefully in the future I can try synchro with him."
And Daley also admitted that he has increased his work rate since his Olympic debut in Beijing.
"I think people have realised my mindset changed after Beijing and the fact I thought 'I need to work 10 times as hard as I did before," he said.
"I try and work as hard as I possibly can because I want to have no regrets going into competition.
"It's good to be known as one of the top divers. Since Rome people have started to think I am maybe one of the top divers, whereas before I was thinking 'oh no, they're the top divers, I've got no chance'."

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