Perfection only enough for silver for Tom Daley at Fina World Diving Series in Dubai

Britain’s Tom Daley produced a perfect dive in the men’s 10m platform finals last night, but had to settle for a silver medal after Chinese rival Qui Bo went two better with three faultless efforts at the Hamdan Sports Complex.

Qiu Bo, centre, poses with his gold medal from the men's 10m platform with silver medallist Tom Daley, left, and bronze medallist Yang Jin, right. Photo courtesy: Fina World Diving Series

DUBAI // Britain’s Tom Daley produced a perfect dive in the men’s 10m platform finals on Saturday night, but had to settle for a silver medal after Chinese rival Qui Bo went two better with three faultless efforts at the Hamdan Sports Complex.

The men’s 10m platform finals field at the Fina Diving World Series Dubai 2015 featured every medallist from the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2013 World Championships.

After Daley produced a perfect dive in this morning’s semi-final, hopes were high for another gold medal for Great Britain after Jack Laugher won the 3m gold on Friday night.

But a perfect dive from Qui Bo saw him take the lead and he produced perfect dives again in rounds four and six to win in 612.75, beating his previous personal best of 609.00.

Daley’s perfect dive in round three got the crowd going, and moved him into second position which he held onto, finishing with 578.25, and also beating his personal best of 578.15. China’s Yang Jian finished third.

After qualifying in third behind Jian Yang and Daley in the morning, Qiu said: “This morning I did not warm up properly so didn’t perform well, tonight was better. I am happy with that.”

Daley was happy with silver, saying: “It’s definitely nice to know that China are beatable now, and it’s just about making sure that you put as much pressure on them as possible, because who knows what can happen in competition, as we saw yesterday in the men’s 3m. We’re catching up. Jack’s gold inspired me to get a personal best and I got one.”

Earlier in the evening, the women’s final had seen a Chinese one-two with Chen Ruoli beating Liu Hiuxia and Tonia Couch of Great Britain grabbing third, much to the delight of the crowd.

“The crowd was amazing, I can’t believe we’re in Dubai and everybody was behind me and behind GB today, it was great, I think it helped,” said Crouch.

“Four years ago there was no such thing as beating the Chinese but now we’re getting close, the men have caught them up completely, the women have still a little bit to catch up but we’re right behind them.

In the final event on the programme, the 10m mixed synchro competition making its debut in Dubai, China’s diminutive duo of teenagers Tai Xiaohu and Lian Jie took the gold with 363.12, ahead of Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito and Vincent Riendeau on 335.58.

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