Diving champ Daley rules himself out of race at Youth Games

SINGAPORE - British diving world champion Tom Daley doesn’t like his chances of being in the running for a medal for the 3-metre springboard at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games after he had to skip his favourite 10m platform contest because of a tricep injury.

“The last time I dived at 3m competitively was in 2008,” the Games’ official news service on Saturday quoted the 16-year-old Daley as saying. “Since then, I’ve been training at 3m only once or twice a week

“I’m going to try to do all my dives at 3m as well as I can and try to get into the final, but for somebody who doesn’t train at 3m very often, I’d be very surprised if I did,” he said.

Daley won the world title in the 10m platform competition in Rome last year to become the youngest champion in the discipline.

But he pulled out of the European Championships in Budapest this month after tearing his right tricep.

On Friday, the British Olympic Association said Daley would only compete in the 3m springboard contest, his weaker discipline, Sunday in Singapore.

“The tear to Tom’s tricep is manageable with the forces of impact where 3m is concerned,” his coach Andy Banks said.

However, it would be risky for the 16-year-old to compete in next Tuesday’s 10m event as the forces involved in that competition were much more significant, Banks said.

“It’s obviously frustrating, but I believe that it’s absolutely the right decision,” he was quoted as saying.

Daley is one of the highest profile competitors at the Youth Olympics, which feature 3,600 athletes aged 14 to 18.