Diving sensation Tom Daley is putting thoughts of Olympic gold to the back of his mind and instead concentrating on simply doing his best at the London 2012 Games.

The 17-year-old Olympian from Plymouth is one of Britain’s highest hopes at the Games next year after winning two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

But the Westcountry sporting star said he will not let thoughts of winning distract him from perfecting his technique.

He is currently training for next year’s London Olympic Games in Australia.

Having failed to win a medal at this year’s world championships in Shanghai, Daley is being careful not to build up expectations ahead of London 2012.

He said: “I don’t particularly think of any expectations for 2012.

“I don’t think about outcome goals, I think about going in there and trying to do the best performance I can.

“I’ve got six dives to do, out of the millions of dives I’ve trained in my life only six of them are going to count.

“I just have to make sure that I go in there and give them all my best shot. I can only concentrate on my performance and then the results will look after themselves. There are eight people that can come away with a gold medal, so it will be interesting to see what will happen.”

The sporting star has become something of an iconic figure in the South West and is often in the spotlight.

But despite the teenager’s high profile, both regionally and nationally, Daley says he does not feel under any pressure to perform and is more concerned with diving well than living up to public expectation.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, he said: “I don’t really see any expectation coming from the British public. Of course, you see it in the newspapers and things like that, but I just have to think, ‘It’s my performance, I’ve got to go out there and give it my best shot’.

“If I don’t dive very well it’s only me who will be disappointed about it to be honest. I can only go out there and do the best that I can, that will just have to be good enough.”