Tom Daley recovered from a modest start in the preliminaries of the men’s 10 metres individual platform to keep his hopes of winning two Olympic golds in Tokyo alive.
Daley, who topped the podium alongside Matty Lee in the synchronised event last week as he ended a 13-year wait for glory at the Games, is aiming to do the double in the Japanese capital and he reached Saturday’s semi-finals.
However, he sat outside the top-18 qualification places after over-rotating on his first dive, a score of 56.1 from his reverse three and a half somersaults with tuck only good enough for 23rd spot at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
He gradually improved, moving up to 18th then 12th by the halfway stage with solid, if unspectacular dives, before an armstand back three somersaults with pike brought his best score of 94.5 and a place in the top-six.
The 27-year-old has attracted attention for knitting at poolside while supporting his teammates and was seen doing so again in-between dives, before closing strongly with his final two dives to finish with a total score of 453.70.
That was good enough for fourth spot out of 29 competitors but British teammate Noah Williams missed out on joining Daley in the next stage – the semis and final will both take place on Saturday – after finishing 27th.
Reigning world champion Yang Jian came out on top with an overall total of 546.9, with Chinese compatriot Cao Yuan finishing second on 529.3.
Ukraine’s Oleksiy Sereda, 15, and Japan’s Rikuto Tamai, 14, are among the others who qualified for the semi-finals.
Daley, who won bronze in the event at London 2012 before exiting in the semi-finals at Rio 2016, is a two-time 10m platform world champion.
The 27-year-old’s first title came at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, before he added a second in Budapest in 2017.
