There remains a "mountain of work" to be done, says Lord Coe, as the race to prepare for the Olympic Games enters the home straight.

Double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington made light of having to swim from lane one to claim the silver medal in the 400 metres freestyle at the World Championships here yesterday. The 22-year-old scraped into the final as the seventh-fastest qualifier after looking a shadow of the swimmer she has been this season in the heats. However, just as in the last World Championships in Rome where she only just made the final before finishing third, Adlington swam a controlled race to be second to Federica Pellegrini, the Italian successfully defending her crown.

Double world junior champion Jack Laugher hopes he can one day enjoy his time in the spotlight currently occupied by Tom Daley after an eighth-placed finish in the 3 metre springboard final on his World Championships debut yesterday that belied his 16 years.

Tom Daley and Pete Waterfield finished a distant sixth in the final of the 10-metre synchronised event on the first weekend of the World Championships in Shanghai. The pair's preparations were badly disrupted by an illness to Waterfield and it showed as the competition wore on and they slipped down the leader board. The event was won by the Chinese pair of Qui Bo and Huo Liang, who will be strong favourites to repeat their success at next year's Olympics.

"I am 100 per cent going to be around in 2012. I always was," Sir Clive Woodward assured us last week, confirming – as first revealed here – he would be staying with the British Olympic Association and not returning to rugby.

The Father's Day cards available in my local newsagent had an air of mild embarrassment. Mother's Day comes sanctified by society. Father's Day was dragged into official existence by President Nixon. Faced with illustrations of a pint of beer, a football or a set of golf clubs I chose a card in primary colours, which said: "Whatever mum thinks of you, I appreciate you."

World champion Tom Daley had to be content with second place on his return to 10m platform competition for the first time since the death of his father.

We try to be honest with our readers, and part of that contract is to hold our hands up and admit when we’ve made a mistake.

Tom Daley will dive in the 10m platform only at this weekend's British Championships as last night the teenager and his synchro partner Peter Waterfield pulled out of tomorrow's team event. The duo will now focus on Sunday's individual platform, the event in which 17-year-old Daley is world champion.

Tom Daley is expected to take part in this weekend's qualifiers for the World Championships despite attending his father's funeral yesterday.

British athletes are to be given a second chance to buy tickets for the 2012 Olympic Games after some of the nation's leading medal hopes complained that they had lost out in the public ballot.