Tom Daley left the Olympic Village on Monday night without the medal he craved after falling short alongside Pete Waterfield in the platform synchro.

Waterfield, a four-time Olympian, was left apologising to his 18-year-old team-mate after a fluffed fourth dive sent them spiralling from top spot to outside the podium places.

They failed to make up the lost ground to finish fourth as China’s teenage duo Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan claimed gold ahead of Mexico and the United States.

“After that fourth dive I actually said sorry to Tom,” said Waterfield, who won an Olympic silver in the platform synchro alongside Leon Taylor at Athens 2004.

“I said: ‘Sorry mate’. That’s when he said: ‘Don’t worry we’ve got our next one and we’ve got a big one’.

“Unfortunately it just wasn’t big enough to get back.”

For his part Daley absolved Waterfield of any blame, after he only marginally made a better fist of the same dive, which drew the lowest score of any in the final.

“We’re a team. At the end of the day that’s it, full stop,” Daley said.

“We’re a team and we win together and we lose together. We’re proud of being here at the Olympic Games in front of a home crowd.”

Hours later Daley, along with Waterfield, left the Olympic Village to undertake a six-day training camp in Southend ahead of the individual platform on the penultimate night of the Games.

Daley’s anticipated clash with Qiu Bo, who snatched away his platform world title last year, is set to be the highlight of the diving programme and performance director Alexei Evangulov is keen to wrap him up in cotton wool until then.