Waterfield determined not to follow same path as Taylor

By Ryan Bangs, Sportsbeat

OLYMPIC silver medalist Peter Waterfield has vowed to do what former partner Leon Taylor couldn't and prove there's life on the board after injury.

FIGHTING INJURY: Peter Waterfield adamant injuries won't bring premature end to career (Getty Images)

The 28-year-old has endured the toughest past 12 months of his career to date after undergoing surgery on a damaged shoulder shortly after the Olympics last summer.

Waterfield has competed just once since but did so with ease narrowly missing out on a medal at the World Championships in Rome after finishing fourth in the 1m springboard.

The Southampton-based diver's injury came six months after his partnership with Taylor came to an end after the latter was forced to retire with persistent back trouble in May last year.

Taylor was riddled with injury throughout the latter part of his career undergoing shoulder surgery four times before suffering a hernia and back problems that ultimately led to him pulling out of the Olympics in Beijing.

The pair became the first Brits to win an Olympic medal when they claimed sychronised 10m silver in 2004 but Waterfield has vowed not to follow Taylor's path after a year on the treatment table.

"The surgery kept me out for a long time and I really couldn't do much at all so it was a real struggle. I had never been out for that amount of time in my career before," said Waterfield.

"I was doing all the rehab but it was hard - Leon struggled a lot from injuries and eventually forced him to retire but despite that I never really knew how hard it was.

"Leon didn't really come out the other side but hopefully I have. Finishing fourth in Rome on my first competition back was a good achievement after what I had been through.

"My funding went down and I was really struggling with the shoulder and it was just a hard time for me.

"But hopefully now I am back on track for the next year and to have a fourth to show for almost a year out was a really good result - now I just have to train hard and keep up my fitness."

Waterfield's ambitions will now turn to adding to the Commonwealth gold and silver medals he won in 2002 and 2006 respectively - provided he boards the plane to Delhi next October.

And with just less than 1000 days to go until the 2012 Olympics - Waterfield admitted the next 12 months will be pivotal to him bringing the curtain down on his career in London in style.

"The World Cup series and the Commonwealth Games will probably make up my year and hopefully I can do well and get my funding back up," he added.

"I would love to medal again at the Commonwealths but international diving is getting pretty hard now - sometimes I look up at what some people are doing now and just think wow.

"But I am back into the swing of things and looking towards 2012 - that will probably be my final competition and I want to end it all with a medal."