TOM DALEY eased into the World Championships 10m platform final in Kazan.

The 21-year-old Plymothian, who won a team gold earlier in the week with Leeds’ Rebecca Gallantree, scored 524.70 points to finish third in Saturday afternoon’s semi-final.

That was a big improvement on his preliminary round, where he came ninth with 466.55 points after a poor fourth dive.

China’s Qiu Bo and Jain Yang qualified first and second from the semi-final, with Olympic champion David Boudia fifth. Fellow British diver Matty Lee, though, missed out on reaching the last 12.

Daley, 2009 world champion, will compete in the final on Sunday. However, by just reaching the final he has secured Great Britain a quota place at next year’s Olympic Games in Rio.

Daley said: “I’ve been working towards this moment all year and to finally say I’ve qualified a spot for GB at the Olympic Games is a massive relief more than anything.

“Now I can go into the off season a little bit more relaxed and I can go in and have fun tomorrow and let it rip.