Taylor backs Daley to shine in future

FORMER British Olympic medalist Leon Taylor has backed protégé Tom Daley to bounce back from his Beijing disappointment.

_{DIVING PRODIGY: Leon Taylor backs Daley to bounce back after disappointing showing at Beijing Olympics}

Daley might be the most famous 14-year old in China but celebrity brings no guarantees at the Olympics.

Britain's youngest Olympian in 48 years could only finish eighth out of eight with partner Blake Aldridge in yesterday's men's 10m synchronised diving.

But Daley has youth on his side - and he'll get the chance to compete in the individual competitions later next week.

"They've got a massive amount of learning to do and this experience will prove invaluable to them," said Taylor, who won synchro silver with partner Peter Waterfield four years ago.

"As nice as it would have been, they only had an outside chance of a medal and it wasn't expected.

"The teams that really nailed it where the teams with experience and they've got that now for next time.

"I'm disappointed for them because I know how hard they've trained and worked for this.

"I can really feel for them because I've been there and I know how heartache feels at the Olympic Games.

"It's up to them to take what happened here and put it to use. They need to take it on the chin like good competitors but then regroup and learn from it."

 

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Daley woke yesterday morning to find he was the front page picture on China's biggest newspaper.

He denies his focus was affected but the pressure of the occasion - and the much-hyped build-up - clearly took its toll.

"We didn't dive very well and we're disappointed," said Daley, who spent nearly an hour longer than Chinese gold medalists Yue Hin and Liang Ho talking to the world's media.

"I was really nervous but I soon settled, unfortunately it wasn't our day.

"But it was a great experience and I've blown away some of the cobwebs, I'm going into the individual event full of confidence."

Aldridge has got used to becoming the ‘significant' other to the precocious teen.

He dived better than his young team-mate but was less than impressed with scoring - which he claims penalised mistakes too hard.

"The judges didn't seem like they wanted to go with us," he said.

"We looked at our first dive and the synchro was great but we didn't get much from it.

"We made a little mistake on our third dive and we got absolutely hammered for it.

"It was a great experience but unlike Tom, I don't get another chance - my Olympics are over now. I really thought we could medal and we proved that at the World Cup."

JAMES TONEY in Beijing