Tom Daley’s Olympic debut ended in recriminations after he

clashed with diving partner Blake Aldridge over an apparent

phone call in the middle of the final.

Aldridge has blamed the hype surrounding his 14-year-old

partner Daley for their disappointing performance in the men’s

synchronised 10 metre platform event after the teenager

criticised him for contacting his mother before their last

dive.

The pair finished last out of the eight teams competing at

the Water Cube in Beijing despite an encouraging start.

Aldridge admitted there had been an “incident” between the

two as they waited to make their final dive but by then the

cause was already lost.

“There was a little incident but it is an Olympic Games, you

are in a different world and people are going to do things

differently,” said the Southampton-based athlete.

“He had a pop at me before the last dive. I saw my mum in

the audience and I asked her to give me a call and Tom went to

me ’Why are you on the phone? We’re still in the competition

and we’ve got another dive to do.’

“That’s just Thomas – he’s over-nervous. Thomas should not

be worrying about what I’m doing but he was worrying about

everyone and everything and that to me is really the sole

reason why he didn’t perform.

“We were out of character, Tom was nervous and that’s what

happens. Certainly not so much for me, I’m a little bit older

than Tom so I can take things on the chin a bit easier.

“When you are nervous you are in a different environment and

things change and we both changed and did things

differently.

“We tried to stick to our routine, unfortunately it didn’t

come together on the day.”

Daley, at 14 years and 81 days is Britain’s youngest

Olympian since Ken Lester in 1960, has been the subject of

intense media attention since his arrival in the Chinese

capital.

At the diving team’s press conference on the eve of the

Games the youngster fielded most of the questions, was mobbed

by television crews as he left the venue and this morning his

full-page photograph featured on the front page of one of the

China Daily’s sports supplements.

Aldridge, for whom the Games are now over, identified the

glare of publicity for affecting Daley’s – and his –

performance.

“I wasn’t on the top of my game, but I out-dived Thomas and

that’s not something that normally happens,” said the

26-year-old.

“That to me is because he had a lot more pressure on him

than I did. I wasn’t at my best but I landed on my head with

every single dive, which was my aim.

“But it was hard work for me today. Tom was very nervous,

more so than ever before.

“I think he really struggled to get through the competition,

and as his partner it was hard for me to get up there and try

to ease him into it. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t work.

“I certainly think the media played a part in that and also

just the Olympic Games, it is a massive event.

“I tried to not let it take over my performance; it takes

two of us to dive well on the day and it wasn’t our day.

“The reason it didn’t come together was that we didn’t

bounce off each other.

“We didn’t have that fun aspect to it that we would normally

have.”

The pair, who were third in the World Cup at the Olympic

venue in February and won a World Series event in Sheffield in

May, began well.

They scored 52.80 for their first of six dives, a forward

one-and-a-half somersault with pike, and were joint third with

Australia and Germany.

It went downhill from there as they slipped to sixth in

round two and eventually finished eighth after their six

attempts.

Aldridge, who plans to train on to the London 2012 Games,

added: “We were both out of character to how we normally would

be and that showed in our dives.

“Me and Tom perform well when we bounce off each other and

today we didn’t have that connection.

“I didn’t feel like we were in there and enjoying it the way

we should be.

“It was all a bit too much expectation. I think nerves played

a part. A medal was not out of reach, that is the real

disappointment.”

Despite all the publicity before the competition Daley,

somewhat naively, claimed he was surprised by all the attention

he attracted from the world’s media poolside.

“I’m just a regular kid when I’m not diving. I was

expecting, because we came eight out of eighth, no one was

going to speak to us,” said the Plymouth teenager.

“I haven’t been looking at any newspapers while I’ve been

out here. I’ve just been focusing on doing what I have to

do.

“We obviously didn’t dive very well, as you could probably

tell. It was disappointing but it was a great experience.

“I really enjoyed myself and had so much fun out there. That

is all you can ask for getting the experience of it.

“We prepared like a normal competition and we treated it

like a normal competition.

“It was just the fact it wasn’t our day today, we just had a

bad day. We put 100% effort into every dive we did we just

didn’t pull it off.”

HERALD EXCLUSIVE: Don't miss Tuesday's edition of The Herald

in which Great Britain diving coach Andy Banks talks

exclusively about the 'bust up' between Tom Daley and divning

partner Blake Aldridge, and on their diving performance

yesterday.