Tom Daley wins gold in 10m platform at World Championships
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 22/07/17 8:38pm
Tom Daley has won a second World Championships 10m platform title after claiming gold in Budapest on Saturday.
The 23-year-old Plymouth diver was inconsolable after missing out on qualification from the Olympic semi-final in Rio last August, having been peerless in the earlier qualification heat.
But Daley delivered this time, responding strongly after Olympic champion Chen Aisen had piled on the pressure, to add to the world title he first won in 2009, aged just 15.
Daley had an advantage of 5.7 points over Chen going into the last of six rounds.
Chen scored 106.20 to leave Daley needing his best dive of the series to win and he duly delivered.
"When I saw Chen Aisen do his last dive, I saw the Chinese team cheering and celebrating as if they had won," Daley said.
"And I was like 'okay, you want to play that game? I'm going to show you what I can do too'.
"It turned me into a competitive animal. I was like 'okay, this is fun - this is what we've all been working for. Let the best man win'.
"It was a weird competitive feeling. It was like I had blinkers on."
Daley won with a total of 590.95 points - more than Chen scored in winning Olympic gold in Rio.
Chen finished second with 585.25 points and bronze went to China's Yang Jian with 565.15, while Briton Matty Lee was 12th.
Asked if it was bittersweet, Daley did not wish to dwell on Rio.
"Knowing that I can win makes it feel good," he added. "I can put to bed Rio now and be like 'now I can move on in my journey to Tokyo'."
Daley and Grace Reid earlier claimed silver in the mixed synchronised 3m springboard.
