World and Commonwealth Diving Champion Tom Daley will take a break from competition for the rest of the year.
The
23-year-old, who in 2018 has already won a synchro platform gold at the
Commonwealths and five diving world-series medals, will take the rest of the
year off to allow him to return to full fitness after a series of ailments. His
final competition was in Russia this weekend where he picked up a fourth
consecutive silver with mixed synchro partner Grace Reid.
He
will return to training in the autumn, but will not feature in any major
competition until 2019.
Triple
World Champion Daley said: “Diving is a huge part of my life, and I have
dedicated the last 15 years to it.
“I
want to keep performing at the highest level for myself, my family and my fans,
but in order to do that I need time to take some time to recover.
“I’ll
be using the rest of the year to spend time with my husband and new baby and
work on projects close to my heart. I am sure this will give me the time I need
to be in a position to compete at my best going into the next Olympics.”
A
strong squad will be competing at the World Cup in China next month and at the
Europeans in Edinburgh in August, which is likely to include triple
Commonwealth champion Jack Laugher alongside fellow gold medallists Grace Reid,
Chris Mears and Dan Goodfellow.
Alexei
Evangulov, National Performance Director for diving added: “We have had a
meeting with Tom, his coach Jane and our medical team and agree a break from
competition is what he needs to enable him to return to his best ability in
2019 and going into Tokyo 2020.
“The global diving schedule this year has already been busy, and it is vital that all our divers take care of themselves physically and emotionally, in what is a very demanding sport.”
Tickets are still available for the Europeans, which will be hosted by the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh as part of Glasgow 2018. Tickets are available here.