On a medal-laden night for British divers at the London Aquatics Centre, Tom Daley claimed his first World Series title in over two years but insisted he can still perform even better.
Daley dominated the 10m platform final on Sunday night, totalling 554.05 to finish comfortably clear of China’s world record holder Jian Yang (518.75) and Olympic silver medallist Qiu Bo (506.60).
There was also an impressive score of 99.00 for his forward 3.5 somersault with one twist dive – the ‘firework’ dive he chose to replace the ‘demon dive’ which had plagued him since winning bronze at London 2012.
And Daley believes with more consistency across the board, he can score even higher.
“That’s the highest I’ve ever scored on any twisting dive in my life, I’m over the moon,” he said.
“I’m definitely glad I made that change to my dive. It was also fun to undergo that process as I haven’t done that since I was 12, 13 years old.
“But in training I dive better than that, consistently and regularly, it’s just about me trying to do it consistently and regularly in the competitions.
“I want to get to the point where I can be pushing the world record.”
Daley’s gold was just one of three medals won by British divers on the night with fellow Olympian Tonia Couch taking her third straight individual 10m bronze.
The 25-year-old, who won 10m platform synchro with Sarah Barow on Friday, scored 357.80 from her five dives, with Canada’s Roseline Fillion (379.15) taking gold and China’s Huixia Liu (378.70) silver and Barrow placing fifth on 335.
“It’s my third individual bronze in a row so I can’t believe it,” she said.
“It gives me a lot of World Championships, obviously they will be a lot tougher but it just makes me feel like I am just as good as the rest of the world.
“This year I’m really starting to believe that whereas maybe in previous years that was not always the case.
"I don't know what to put the great form down to, but I'm working hard and I guess I have a lot of experience now so hopefully it can continue."
And a best ever World Series leg for Great Britain was rounded off with an impressive silver for Matthew Lee and Georgia Ward in the 10m mixed synchro.
Britain’s sixth medal came after the duo scored 331.14 to split overall winners China and third-placed Russia.
“It was unreal, it was very unexpected,” said Lee, who also finished fifth in the 10m platform individual semi-finals on Sunday morning.
“I love training and competing with Georgia, it’s a lot of fun and I think that’s helped things.
“We did a competition in Canada a few weeks ago we got a bronze there but we didn’t do much training at all. This time we’ve done a lot more. That really helped.”
© Sportsbeat 2015