Daley heartbreak in Men's 10m semi-final

Tom Daley finished his Rio 2016 campaign with an 18th place finish in the Men’s 10m Platform semi-final.

The Dive London Aquatics Centre diver from Plymouth looked a completely different athlete from his preliminary performance. He nailed just three out of his six dives.

He looked confident in the first round, but after a shaky couple of dives in rounds two and three, Daley had a lot of catching up to do. His dives in rounds four and five were beautifully executed. His penultimate dive, the Reverse 3½ Somersaults, saw him move up into 15th place after scoring 91.80.

“I’ve no idea what went wrong. Training has been going really well, I’m in the shape of my life. I gave it my everything and tried my absolute best. After four years of hard work and effort it’s tough to accept.” – Tom Daley

Daley’s final dive was not enough to move him up the leaderboard. He finished with a score of 403.25, almost 170 points short of his prelim performance.

Daley sailed through prelims

Daley put in an almost flawless performance in the preliminary round of the Men’s 10m, making his way into the semi-final in first position.

His entries on every dive were perfect, with barely a splash on each of his six dives. He scored 571.85 overall, which was seven points ahead of his closest competitor, Qiu Bo of China.

Daley’s highest scoring dive was the Forward 4 1/2 Somersaults which secured him 9 and 9.5s from all judges, giving a total score of 103.60.

Speaking after his prelim performance, Daley said: “I am really happy with the way it went. There is still more to come from it. The judges don’t really give out tens in a prelim so come to away with a few tens thrown into the mix there and a score of 571, I’m really happy with it.

“I felt good, my legs are moving well, I am jumping well. I am comfortable with all my dives and the atmosphere was incredible. It wasn’t like a normal prelim where people just clap for the sake of it. People were really enjoying the diving.”

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