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Tom Daley dives into mentor role with young fans

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King of the pool Tom Daley took time off from his hectic training schedule to teach young swimmers how to dive. The Olympic medallist is currently visiting Shanghai, where he performed from the 10m platform and taught a few basic skills to keen students.

Tom Daley

For the first time since the London Olympics, the 18-year-old shared the swimming pool with Chinese diving star Qiu Bo. The athletes, who spent two hours with 20 students, expressed their delight that so many youngsters wanted to learn the sport. "I was glad to see so many children doing amazingly well in learning the basic diving skills like jumping forwards and backwards, which normally take a couple of weeks," said Tom. Qiu was keen to point out the dangers associated with the sport. "If you want to learn how to dive, it's better to start as early as you can, but if you just want to make it a hobby, you should be very careful and perhaps even switch to less dangerous activities like swimming," expressed the 19-year-old.

Tom Daley

 And as for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Tom spoke of his desire to take part. "I went to the junior world championships last week and there were some very good junior divers coming through - especially from China. All I can do is keep training and working hard to compete with them".The event was organized by the British Consulate-General in Shanghai to celebrate the sporting links between China and Britain after the London Olympics.