By Jeff Ang/YOG News Room

Saturday, August 21, 2010 — Diving world champion Tom Daley has ruled himself out of medal contention at the Youth Olympic Games.

A tricep tear has forced the 16-year-old Briton to skip his favourite 10m platform contest next Tuesday. Instead, he will compete in his weaker event, the 3m springboard, tomorrow.

“The last time I dived at 3 metres competitively was in 2008. Since then, I’ve been training at 3m only once or twice a week,” said Tom, downplaying his medal chances.

“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 3 metres very often, I’d be very surprised if I did.”

Yesterday, the British Olympic Association announced that its medical team was pulling Tom out of the 10m platform event as a precaution.

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

“But the forces involved at 10m are much more significant and there’ll be a risk of further straining the tear. It’s obviously frustrating but I believe that it’s absolutely the right decision.”

Last weekend Tom, who won the world title in Rome last year, pulled out of the European Championships in Budapest owing to the tricep injury.

Scans done there showed no tear but a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan done on Tuesday in Singapore revealed that the right tricep was damaged.

Said Tom: “I’m gutted to not be able to compete in my stronger event, but it’ll be an interesting experience to compete in the 3m springboard.”