Tom Daley won his second medal of the Kazan 2015 World Championships with 10m Platform bronze on the final day of diving in Russia.
Having already won Mixed Team gold alongside Rebecca Gallantree, the Brit scored 537.95 to return to the individual World podium for the first time since his 10m gold as a 15-year old in 2009.
Great Britain have enjoyed their most profitable World Championships in history with bronze medals for Jack Laugher and Chris Mears in the 3m Synchro and for Laugher in the individual 3m ensuring a return of four medals.
And while China’s defending champion Qiu Bo (587.00) and USA’s Olympic champion David Boudia (560.20) stormed clear on the day to claim gold and silver in the last event of the schedule, Daley was made to battle hard for his second medal of the week.
Having recovered from missing his new twister dive in the second round, the 21-year old was tied with Mexico’s Ivan Garcia on 435.35 ahead of the last round of dives with the Mexican performing a higher tariff dive to finish.
But it was the Brit who held his nerve to claim the third podium place, receiving his highest score of the final with 102.60 for his back 3 ½ somersaults piked after Garcia had set a target of 83.60.
“I’m really happy with that bronze because I did make it as hard as possible for myself with that second dive,” said Daley. “I’ve learned to persevere, stick at it and keep going because you never know what can happen in competitions.
“It came down to the last dive when we were on the same score but I quite like that competition pressure – I find it fun. I said to Jane [Figueiredo, coach] before the last dive that this is what I like and this is the fun bit for me. I just knew whatever he did, I’d have to do it better.
“There was a lot more I could have done points-wise today. Five more points on inward, 30 more points on twist and I could have scored another 10 on front. I think because the twister is so new and it’s such a hard dive to do, it’s just about getting used to doing it in competition and channeling that energy.
“It’s interesting to see the same three people on the podium today as at London 2012. It looks like we’ve still got it and we just need to shuffle around for next year and hopefully I can end up on top!”
As well as winning four medals, the British team have secured one quota place in all four individual events and one in the men’s 3m Synchro for next year’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Swimming news courtesy of British Swimming.
