Daley set to tackle great rival Qiu

TOM DALEY resumes his rivalry with world champion Qiu Bo today as both look to claim Olympic gold for the first time.

For all the major honours the teenage duo can boast, neither has stood on an Olympic podium.

Both will be favoured to at least do that in Saturday night’s final when the eyes of the host nation fall on their teenage poster boy. Today’s event is the preliminary round.

Daley has revelled in the media spotlight since he won over the British public as a wide-eyed 14-year-old in Beijing four years ago.

In the ensuing years he has added substance to first impressions, famously beating Qiu to win the platform world title in 2009.

At just 15 Daley became Britain’s youngest ever world champion two years after he had already taken the European crown.

But the Plymouth diver’s prodigious talent has since been usurped by the all-conquering Qiu, who at 19 is arguably already one of the best platform divers of all-time.

Qiu blitzed his rivals as he wrestled away Daley’s world crown in Shanghai 12 months ago and he has proven unbeatable since.

Daley was well off the pace in China, finishing fifth, although it came in mitigating circumstances just two months after the death of his father Robert.

British diving performance director Alexei Evangulov revealed on the eve of the games he wanted to remove Daley from the pressures of the OlympicVillage to concentrate on his duel with Qiu.

Expectation on Daley has grown in the past six months as he has hit career-best form, culminating in winning the World Series individual and platform titles.

He also posted a personal best 565.05 in reclaiming his European crown in May his last international appearance before the games.

That score would have been enough to win the platform gold in Beijing four years ago. However, Qiu has lifted the standard even further in that time with scores in excess of 600.

Should the Chinese star hit those heights, Daley is aware he most probably can not match him.

But he has repeatedly voiced his hope that the weight of a 17,500-strong home support inside the Aquatics Centre could help crack the Chinese.

THE GAMES aren’t over yet but it’s getting to the time when you start picking your Olympic highlight and there’s no doubt about what’s been mine: seeing Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon.

I feel pretty fortunate to be able to say I was in the stadium when she was competing for her gold medal and it’s an experience I’ll never forget. There was a lot said at the start of the games about empty seats but there certainly weren’t any to be seen last Friday night.

We had great seats near the finishing line to see her 200 metres. I know that everybody keeps saying that the atmosphere is unbelievable, but it really is. I was in theAquatics Centre as well and as great an atmosphere as there was there, I’d have to say the Olympic Stadium was even better.

The place went absolutely crazy for Jess and that was only the first day! When I watched Saturday night’s three golds in 45 minutes, I could appreciate what it would have been like.

There have been so many British highlights over the last couple of weeks but her gold is mine. She had the most pressure on her of anybody because she was, effectively, the face of the games. And for her to block all that out and perform like she did to become the best all-round athlete in the world was fantastic.

I think she’s said she doesn’t expect to have another Olympic heptathlon in her, and you can understand that given the training she must have to put herself through.

But she’s got a good event to fall back on – the 100 metres hurdles – and you wouldn’t bet against her getting a gold in that in Rio.

From a Scottish point of view, I said afterWimbledon that the Olympics could be perfect for Andy Murray to bounce back and that’s what happened. I wish I’d had a bet on him! I can definitely see him going on to win several grand slams now. He looks a changed man.

What more can Chris Hoy do? They’ve already made him a Sir. King of Scotland next, maybe!

I bet the organisers of the Commonwealth Games were thrilled when he said he was planning to go on for another two years to finish up in Glasgow.You couldn’t get better publicity for the Games than that.

Obviously the Commonwealth games are on a much smaller scale than the Olympics but we’ve certainly got a lot to live up to.

I’m sure we’ll rise to the challenge, though. Melbourne staged a great Commonwealth Games after Sydney had the Olympics, and I’m sure Glasgow 2014 will be a big success when it comes round.