Tom Daley factor encourages kids to take the plunge

SWIMMING pools across Scotland are struggling to cope with an explosion in demand from diving stars of the future aiming to emulate the success of Olympic hero Tom Daley.

Primary school children are leading the craze for the daredevil sport, forcing leisure centres with dive board facilities to create waiting lists for classes for the first time.

The number taking part each week at one Edinburgh pool alone has trebled in the last year, while diving clubs around the country are reporting a similar surge in interest as a result of the “Daley factor”.

Mandie Arthur, dive coach at the capital’s Commonwealth Pool, said yesterday the pool had hired additional staff and installed extra one metre boards to cope with demand.

She said: “The sport has just exploded on the back of last summer’s Olympics and the recent television show Splash, which also featured Tom Daley.

“The children are full of confidence and have no fear. They all want to leap off from 10 metres from the word go.”

The number of divers taking part at the Olympia Leisure Centre in Dundee has doubled since last year, while a similar increase has been recorded at the Citadel Leisure Centre in Ayr.

Officials at Midlothian Council say diving has become “extremely popular”, and Kay Neale, diving convenor at the Dundee City Aquatics Club, said: “The coverage of Tom Daley has been such a huge influence.”

Daley, who won bronze at the London Olympics, will appear in Edinburgh in three weeks when he competes in the FINA World Diving Series at the Royal Commonwealth Pool.