PLYMOUTH diving sensation Tom Daley recorded a lifetime best performance in the World Series as he claimed silver at Sheffield yesterday.

Fourteen-year-old Daley, described by Plymouth Diving coach Andy Banks as one of the best divers in the world, claimed his medal in a fiercely-competitive final of the men's 10-metre platform.

Daley's performance was not enough for gold as China's Liang Huo edged him out by only 0.60 points.

But the teenaged Plymouth diver recorded 10s in four of his six dives to score 540.85 and beat Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham into fourth place.

Just over a point separated the top three in a thrilling final, with Daley recovering from fourth place with two dives to go to relegate Qiu Bo, who beat him into second at last year's World Youth Championships, into third by 0.35 points.

Daley, who took bronze at the last World Series event in China, said afterwards: "It was a very high-standard competition, so I'm pretty chuffed.

"I was thinking going into that final with two Olympic champions and a World Youth champion that I would be lucky to get a medal, let alone be half a point off a gold.

"It would have been nice to hear the national anthem, but we'll have to leave that for London (2012)."

Daley admitted he will have to learn some new, more difficult dives to remain competitive, although he does not plan to make those alterations until after the World Championships in Rome later this year.

"I won't be changing my dives before Rome – but I have plans to learn the back two-and-a-half twister," he said.

"But to be less than a point off the gold medal with the easiest list of all of them is very pleasing."

Daley had finished finished fifth from five finalists in the synchronised event with new partner Max Brick the day before.

New British Diving performance director Alexi Evangulov indicated Daley's hopes of an Olympic medal were strongest in the team event and the teenager conceded the pair had some work still to do.

The teenage duo, however, have only trained together for a week.

They paired up following Daley's split with Blake Aldridge after they fell out between dives in last year's Olympic final.

Significantly, Daley and Brick's score of 411.84 today bettered the mark Daley and Aldridge produced in Beijing to provide further reason to believe their partnership could yet blossom.

Daley said: "I'd say it was a very good performance. To break the 400 barrier was our aim, really.

"We have only had one proper training session before the World Series and then we've done synchro all this week. I think it was our best performance of the week, it was just one missed dive, really. If we had got that then we would have got 20-30 more points."

Daley's coach Andy Banks said he was pleased with the teenager's performance in both competitions.

He said: "I think there was something like two points between the top three.

"Tom's absolutely over the moon and quite rightly."

Daley now heads off to a training camp in the United States, before taking part in the Fort Lauderdale grand prix.

Then it's the World Championships in Rome in July.

Banks said that Daley would not be put through particularly heavy training before the Florida event.

But he said: "One of our aims was to get him happy to be in world-class company and he has certainly done that.

"It has been a brilliant day for him – he is certainly one of the best divers in the world."

Daley's Plymouth Diving Colleague Brooke Graddon was to have competed at Sheffield, but had to pull out at the last minute due to injury.