Diver Tom Daley Youngest British Male to Qualify for Olympics; Rower Disputes Claim

Updated February 26, 2008

BEIJING, China, February 25. DIVER Tom Daley made Olympic history in Beijing when he became the youngest British male ever to qualify for the Games.

The 13-year-old platform diver needed a top eight finish in the FINA World Cup Men's 10m and duly delivered with a seventh place which was finally secured with the second highest scoring dive of the competition – 100.30 including four 10s.

However, Ken Lester later disputed the claim in an article in the Daily Mail. Lester qualified as a coxswain in rowing in the 1960 Games and was 13 years, 144 days at the time – 10 months younger than Daley will be in Beijing.

Peter Waterfield also pre-selected himself to the British Olympic team by virtue of the fact he had achieved a top 12 finish at both last year's World Championships and again today in the Water Cube when he came eighth.

"To know that you're going to an Olympics after all the hard work and speculation is unbelievable," said Daley. "I'm totally overwhelmed. It's something I've dreamed about but this was meant to happen in 2012 and not in 2008. I'm so happy with the way I dived, especially that last one. I missed one but that's what happens sometimes. You try not to make mistakes but if you do it's about how you respond and I'm pleased with how I did. I'm going to go the Olympics and enjoy every minute of it. It's going to be an amazing experience and one that I was desperate to have before the London Games. Beijing for me will all be about gaining experience. I want to come back here to this amazing venue and just enjoy my diving. I'm not looking at medals. My list of dives isn't difficult enough at this stage to give me the scores I need to win a medal. That will come as I get older and that's where I want to be when London comes along in 2012. Tonight has been just phenomenal. To make it to an Olympics and be able to call yourself an Olympian is what I've always dreamed about and now I've done that I find it so hard to actually believe."

In this morning's semi-finals it was Waterfield (Southampton Diving) who was the pick of the British divers qualifying fourth out of 18 with Daley (Plymouth Diving) in ninth

But Daley began in impressive fashion tonight, drawing as much appreciation from the Chinese crowd as their own divers. He scored 9.0s on his opening dive – back two and-a-half somersault, one-and-a-half twists – to place second into round two.

Daley scored 8.5s on his forward, three-and-half to keep in touch with a field whose absolute class was immediately apparent especially Germany's Sascha Klein and China's Zhou Lu Zin who set the standard impeccably.

By the half way stage Daley lay fourth and Waterfield was eighth with their most difficult dives to come.

Daley was always going to be at a disadvantage going into the final three dives as the degree of difficulty of his routines, at this stage in his career, is less than those above him who therefore have the ability to produce some very big scores.

With the pressure mounting, Daley missed his armstand back triple to make the job of a top eight finish and making his mark in history much more difficult.

With Daley seventh and Waterfield eighth going into round five, the younger athlete kept himself in contention for the Olympic spot with a solid back three-and-a-half but Waterfield closed the gap with his most difficult and highest scoring routine – a back two-and-a-half, two-and-a-half twists.

Daley kept the expectant Chinese crowd waiting until the very last round to see whether they would definitely be seeing the young star return to Beijing this summer and he removed all doubt from the issue with a powerful reverse three-and-a-half which scored four 10s.

Gold went to Klein of Germany with 566.85, Zhou took the silver with 543.40 and David Boudia of the U.S. was third with 526.65. Daley scored 480.40 and Waterfield 465.30.

Britain's women also stepped up to the challenge and qualified Britain for a place in the Women's 3m Synchro courtesy of a best-ever performance for Hayley Sage (City of Sheffield) and Tandi Gerrard (City of Leeds).

The women required a top eight finish from a final field of 12 and a highest ever score off their two required dives got them off to a confident start.

They performed their optional dives strongly without missing anything to finish the competition in sixth place with a score of 308.79

Special thanks to British Swimming for contributing this report.

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