Daley savours major victory in US

alt May 9 - British teenager Tom Daley (pictured) won the men's platform final at the USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale tonight, his first gold medal of 2009.

The 14-year-old found himself going head-to-head with Olympic silver medallist Luxin Zhou and 2008 World Cup champion Sascha Klein in the 10 metre event.

The 2008 European champion dropped marks on his second dive, the forward 3 1/2 Somersault piked, and he knew that to keep within contention of a medal he had to perform his Inward 3 1/2 somersaults tucked well to move back up the ranks.

He scored 9.5s for his inward dive and his competition improved from there.

Daley performed his armstand back 3 somersaults tucked to score four 10s and three 9.5s, but it was his penultimate dive that really stole the show.

Daley took to the board for his back 3 1/2 Somersault tucked and scored 10s from all judges, the only athlete in the final to take 10s across the board.

His final dive saw the Olympic finalist score five more 10s and two 9.5s to put the gold medal out of reach of Germany’s Sascha Klein.

Daley took the victory with a final score of 554.90.

This is his highest ever score for the men’s 10m platform and also the fifth time this year that he has beaten his best score.

Klein had to settle for silver with a score of 552.15 while the Zhou took the bronze medal with a score of 549.70.

Daley said: "It was my personal best score by 14 points, so I'm really happy.

"It was good that all my dives were near perfect."

Earlier, Daley and his new partner, Max Brick, picked up silver in the synchronised platform .

Daley, a beaten finalist alongside Blake Aldridge at last year's Beijing Olympics, has only been diving with new partner Brick since April but the duo scored a promising 423.48 to place second.