Diving: Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield miss out on medal

Tom Daley looks on at the Aquatics centre where he and his partner finished fourth (GETTY IMAGES)

Teen diving sensation Tom Daley and his partner Peter Waterfield today missed out on a medal despite being tipped for victory.

The 18-year-old and his partner failed to take a podium place in the synchronised 10m platform final this afternoon, finishing agonisingly in fourth place.

Taking gold were the heavily fancied Chinese, while Mexico claimed silver and the US took bronze.

Despite rapturous applause from the crowd in the Aquatics Centre, Daley and Waterfield, 31, were unable to put in the performance needed and the afternoon ended in disappointment for Team GB.

The duo had led the competition at the halfway mark but they faded thereafter. A pair of errors, most notably on their reverse three-and-a-half somersaults dive which dropped them out of the podium places, cost them dear as teenage Chinese pairing Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan claimed victory.

Mexico's German Sanchez and Ivan Garcia Navarro took silver ahead of Nick McCrory and David Boudia of the United States who, with an 8.82 points gap over Daley and Waterfield, were comfortably clear in bronze.

Their loss will increase concerns over Team GB’s slow start to London 2012.

Before the competition Daley, who will compete later this week in the individual 10m dive, seemed relaxed as he chatted with team-mates and watched other competitors warm up.

When he and Waterfield eventually took to the diving platform just 30 minutes before the competition, they were greeted by loud cheers from the crowd.

Early this morning Daley took to Twitter to thank fans “no matter what the outcome” and added: “After the toughest year of my life, today is the day!”

The 18-year-old, whose father died earlier this year after a long battle with cancer, was crowned world platform champion three years ago, and in May he reclaimed the European title he first won aged 13.

Daley shot to fame four years ago at the Beijing Games.

In that competition, he failed to win a medal and was heavily criticised by then-partner Blake Aldridge.

The disappointing performance comes as fans will be hoping to see an end to disappointing scenes of empty seats as Locog continued to battle the issue today.

About 3,000 tickets from international sports federations were “put back in the pot” last night and sold to the public, a briefing at the Olympic Park was told this morning.

Team GB celebrated its first Olympic medal success yesterday with cyclist Lizzie Armitstead battling through torrential rain for a silver and swimmer Rebecca Adlington earning a courageous bronze.

Armitstead took second place in the women’s road race on The Mall and although Adlington was unable to defend her 400m freestyle title from the Beijing Games, she did enough to secure third place.

Prime Minister David Cameron attended today’s diving final.

A picture was posted on the Number 10 twitter feed of him travelling to the stadium on the Tube.