Daley and Aldridge Out of Sync in Olympic Diving Pool

After Tom Daley's first Olympic competition ended in acrimony and defeat yesterday the head of British diving claimed the teenager and partner Blake Aldridge had "cracked under the pressure".

Steve Foley, the sport's performance director, said a combination of inexperience and the "cauldron" of the Olympics caused the duo to finish last in the synchronized 10-meter platform final.

Daley was bidding to win a medal aged 14 years and 94 days and his disappointment was compounded by a poolside row with Aldridge, who broke off from his preparations for the final dive to make a phone call to his mother. It drew a rebuke from Daley, whom Aldridge later blamed for the defeat, saying his failure to deal with the pressure had been responsible for their poor performance.

Foley criticized Aldridge's decision to make a call during the competition and said both divers were unable to cope with the situation, particularly after their third-round dive left them effectively out of the medals. "What I'm seeing at the moment is an inexperienced team cracking under the Olympic pressure," Foley said.

"The body language was different, I could see in the showers, they weren't a team after the third dive. I can see these things and what I was reading is that this is a cauldron. You put the five rings in front of them and something changes."

"Blake made a phone call which I agree was unusual and the timing was strange. That tells me that they were under stress and under pressure."

Sir Clive Woodward, deputy chef de mission of the British team, said he had not seen any evidence of the bad blood between Aldridge and Daley that emerged at poolside.

"I have seen them around the village and they have looked very calm but I am sure that can happen with the pressure of the event. They will learn from this and that is the most important thing."

It remains to be seen if Aldridge and Daley continue to dive as a team after the teenager's father said he was unlikely to take kindly to Aldridge's criticism.

Foley suggested the pair had received some strange marks from the judges but believes the experience of failing in an Olympic final will serve Daley well.

"Tom is a remarkable kid, no question, but this was a good lesson because it puts things in perspective for them. We have talked to Tom and he has said 'yes, he was nervous' and Blake, when he missed the third dive, picked up on that and his body language changed.

"He's just 14 so a little more space would be good, and he needs to go back to school. I think education is really important. But you look at how Earl Woods exposed Tiger to pressure and how it helped him, and I think Tom is coping with it really well. Ultimately this will have been really good for him.

"We have not looked at the numbers but there was some funny judging going on out there. We don't look at the individuals but there was one dive where Tom had 5.5 and 7.5 from the two judges, which is a big discrepancy.

"Actually the synchronization was really good, it was the execution of the dives that let them down. When that happens the synchronization slips."