Diving: Waterfield wins gold as England make waves in the pool

Peter Waterfield capped a fantastic Games in the diving pool for England late on Saturday night by winning the 10 metres platform gold medal in a home nation one-two in front of a roaring, partisan crowd.

The 21-year-old Londoner, who lives in a council flat in Southampton and has survived on a £9,000-a-year Lottery funding since turning professional at 17, won a pulsating competition – decided on the final dive – by just 0.48 points.

Leon Taylor, Waterfield's partner in the synchronised 10m event at the Sydney Olympics when they narrowly missed bronze, took the silver. Canada's prodigious teenager Alexandre Despatie, the defending 10m champion, had to settle for third place. Saturday's success came on the heels of two silver medals for Tony Ally, in the 1m and 3m springboard events, and two bronzes for Jane Smith in the corresponding women's events.

It prevented 17-year-old Despatie from becoming the first man ever to win all three diving golds at a Commonwealth Games. He won the 1m event on Thursday and the 3m event on Friday. The English team now has a positive platform – literally and metaphorically – on which to build towards next year's world championships and the Athens Olympics of 2004.

"I can't believe it, I'm overwhelmed," said Waterfield afterwards. "I had two bad competitions prior to this but it didn't affect my confidence because I knew this was my best event and the one that I would do best in." Asked how Taylor, a close friend as well as a team-mate, had reacted to him winning, he joked: "He told me he was going to take me outside and give me a big kick. Actually, he's overjoyed too and he said if he had to be beaten he would rather it be by me and not somebody else."

Taylor, who invented the world's most difficult dive, The Twister, which has a tariff of 3.8 and features in both men's portfolios, said he was especially pleased to win in front of an enthusiastic audience. "To experience support like that was fantastic and it is what we are in the sport for," he said. "This year has been really tough as I've been fighting back from injuries and the season has been a bit stop-start, but I really wanted to put on a good show in Manchester."

Waterfield lay third before the final dive but produced a superb effort, scoring 92.82 points to jump into the lead and take the gold.