Peter Waterfield showed Britain has Olympic diving chance with a superb bronze at the FINA World Cup.
Surprise bronze for Daley's synchro partner in World Cup in London
Peter Waterfield showed Great Britain could have another Olympic diving medal chance as he claimed a superb bronze in the 10m platform even at the FINA World Cup.
Waterfield dived in the synchronised event with Tom Daley, but showed on Saturday that he too can challenge for Olympic glory at London 2012 with a brilliant display at the Aquatics Centre.
Daley's synchro team-mate performed a superb final dive to move up from seventh and delight a vociferous crowd.
The 30-year-old has suffered from injuries of late and admitted after the synchro event that he felt a bit rusty, but he shook all that off on Saturday.
His closing back two-and-a-half somersault two-and-a-half twists attracted scores of nine which were enough to see him leap up the leaderboard into the top three.
He and Daley had managed to finish only seventh in their main event earlier in the week, the youngster's commitment to the sport having been questioned, as Waterfield felt unfairly.
But his own form is clearly on the rise based on this performance which would give him hopes of some individual Olympic glory this summer.
Criticism
Daley has been criticised by his coach and officials at British Swimming, and if anything Waterfield's fine form may add even more pressure on the youngster to perform after years of being built up as a future Olympic star.
There's life in the old dog yet," said Waterfield, who this week returned
from two months out with back and side injuries.
"It's amazing. Like I said at the end of the week my preparation hasn't been
great and I've had to dig really deep. Tonight the crowd really helped me on my way. Without them I could not have done this."
Asked if he thought people might start talking about him rather than Daley, he
added: "Maybe yeah. It's nice to get on the rostrum. It's always nice to have
people talk about you."
Waterfield's success also proved China are not an infallible force in world
diving.
Under the pressure of the home crowd, and Waterfield's late surge, Lin Yue
completely fluffed his final dive to allow the Briton to sneak home.
Home crowd
And while world and Olympic champion Qiu Bo claimed gold, en route to China scooping all eight medals at this week's meet, Waterfield believes the home-pool advantage was evident ahead of this summer's Games.
"I told you. They're not invincible," he said. "This is what happens with a home crowd can do. You can use it to your advantage. You've got to dive well to get that crowd screaming and shouting. That's what I did.
"They made the noises I needed them to and it put the pressure on the other
divers."
It meant Great Britain could reflect on a successful World Cup after Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow also took bronze in the platform synchro on Wednesday night.
The meet was also the first time Great Britain had reached every final at a
World Cup, leaving them in good health ahead of this summer's Olympics.
Also on Saturday, women's springboard synchro pair Becky Gallantree and Alicia Blagg claimed 11th to round out the medal events.
