Daley (14) into Olympic diving final

Athletics: Great Britain's Tom Daley finished with two excellent dives to qualify for the men's 10m platform final at the Water…

Athletics:Great Britain's Tom Daley finished with two excellent dives to qualify for the men's 10m platform final at the Water Cube.  The 14-year-old diver booked a place in his first individual Olympic final as he qualified in eighth position after a score of 458.6.

The Plymouth teenager pulled off an impressive fourth-round jump - an armstand back triple somersault with tuck - to earn 86.4 points and drag himself back into the reckoning.

He followed that up with an even better backwards three-and-a-half somersault which brought 89.1, which brought up his final tally.

Daley was delighted with his performance. He said: "It has been an amazing journey for me this past week. I have been training so hard because to come back after the synchro I really wanted to put in a good performance.

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"I was going into the prelim (last night) a little bit nervous and my first dives weren't too good.

"But coming into the semi-final I was hungry to get into the final and, again, my first dive wasn't so good but I slowly and surely made my way back.

"The fourth one is one of my favourite dives so it is normally my most consistent one.

"I'm going into the final now to enjoy myself and get the whole experience of what an Olympic final is going to be like because in London 2012 that is what I am aiming for.

"To go into the Olympic final in London I just need that experience from Beijing."

However, team-mate Peter Waterfield, from Southampton, just missed out by one place.

China's Huo Liang topped qualifying with 549.95 points.

Waterfield was gutted not to have given himself the chance to add to the silver medal he won in the synchronised 10m platform in Athens four years ago.

"It just didn't go my way. I dived well yesterday and I knew it was going to be a bit more of a struggle this morning but I didn't think it was going to be like that," said the 27-year-old.