Flop Daley on his top bombing
TEARFUL Tom Daley produced Britain’s biggest belly-flop at Rio 2016 and was at a loss to explain his form deserting him overnight.
Plymouth’s poster-boy crashed out of the men’s 10metre platform diving when he failed to make the final – in which his performance director Alexei Evangulov had expected Daley to challenge for gold.
After qualifying in first place on Friday, Daley produced a dreadful set of six dives less than 24 hours later – and then admitted: “I’ve no idea what went wrong.”
The double Olympic bronze medallist finished last of the 18 semi-finalists, with only the top three going through.
And it remains a mystery how his form deserted him.
“I’ve no idea what happened,” said 22-year-old Daley.
“I’ve been feeling so good, I’m in the shape of my life, moving better than I’ve ever moved before – and last night showed that.
“It’s just heartbreaking to think that four years of hard work and effort... it’s tough to accept.”
Daley had boldly claimed that he would be satisfied with nothing less than gold from his individual event after his bronze in the synchro pairs with Dan Goodfellow.
He is already making noises about making amends for his flop here at Tokyo in 2020.
He added: “To think that Team GB diving has already got three medals from this Games is just incredible.
“It definitely gives you a massive kick in motivation to want to stand on top of the podium in 2020.”
But, with 3m springboard whizzkid Jack Laugher picking up gold in the synchro pairs with Chris Mears, and silver in his individual event, Daley’s reign as the pin-up of British diving may have come to an end.
When his opportunity came, it was more like watching Arthur Daley than Tom Daley.