Bronze medal winning British diver dazed by his own popularity at London Olympics

British diver Tom Daley was left dazed by his own popularity in the 10-metre platform event at the London Olympics.

The 18-year-old won the bronze medal but, according to London newspapers, needed a re-dive after his first attempt in the competition.

Daley was initially awarded scores of 7.5 on his first dive but complained he was distracted by camera flashes from the British supporters among the crowd of 17,500 inside the Aquatics Centres.

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A judge allowed a second dive and the crowd was warned against flash photography.

Daley was awarded scores of 8.5 on the re-dive and improved his total by 16.2 points. His final score of 556.95 points was 29.15 ahead of fourth-place finisher Victor Minibaev of Russia.

American David Boudia ended a gold medal drought for the U.S. by winning the event with a dramatic last dive. He edged China's Qui Bo, the world champion and favourite coming into the event, by 1.8 points.

The final result left Qiu in tears while Boudia and Daley, who lost his father to cancer last May, celebrated by leaping into the pool.

Riley McCormick of Victoria finished 11th with 493.35 points.

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Daley almost didn't make it out of Friday's preliminaries. He qualified 15th among the 18 divers who advanced to Saturday's semifinal.

Boudia's victory was the first U.S. gold in diving since 2000, when Laura Wilkinson upset the Chinese on women's platform. It also was the first by an American man since Mark Lenzi won the three-metre springboard at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

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• Video: More money could equal more gold for Canada