Tom Daley marks return to international stage with double medal haul

Tom Daley marked his return to the international stage with two medals on the final day of the FINA Diving World Series in Japan.

He won a silver in the Men’s 10m Platform and teamed up with Grace Reid to take bronze in the Mixed 3m Synchro to cap a successful weekend for the British divers at the Sagamihara Green Pool.

Daley scored an impressive 579.85 points – only 10 points off his lifetime best – and was only denied the gold by an incredible final dive from China’s Jian Yang.

The reigning Diving World Series champion topped the podium with a score of 586.20 with Russia’s Aleksandr Bondar third on 545.90.

He said: “It’s my first time back competing internationally since becoming a Dad and taking some time away from the sport, so I’m really happy to come back with that.

“All the things I have been working on have come together but there’s still a lot more in the tank, so I’m feeling good and looking forward to going to Beijing now.

“I knew I was close to Jian Yang so I wanted to put as much pressure on him as possible going into the last couple of rounds and I did all that I could do with my last dive, but with his 4.1 degree of difficulty it was always going to be tough.

Had to step our game up

“If someone told me I was going to score almost 580 points coming into today I’d have taken it and run!”

Daley had little time to reflect on his achievement as he joined Reid in the Mixed 3m Synchro and the duo scored 312.24 to take third place behind China’s Yani Chang and Hao Yang and the Canadian pairing of Francois Imbeau-Dulac and Jennifer Abel.

They were fifth going into the final dive of the contest but they scored 72.54 points for their Front 3 ½ Somersault Pike (107B), to secure a place on the podium.

Reid said: “We’re really pleased – we were keeping an eye on the rankings and we knew the last dive had to be good and that we had to step our game up.

“We’ve had a busy week, both diving three events, so it’s been quite exhausting but I think we’ve both had a really good first leg of the World Series.”

London will host the final leg of the FINA World Series between 17-19 May.

Picture: British Swimming Twitter