TOM Daley and Peter Waterfield can cope with the pressure of going for Britain’s first diving medal at London 2012 tonight, according to Bill Clark.

The experienced diving coach has watched the superstar duo prepare for today’s 10m platform event at Southend’s Garon Park this week and says they are ready to handle the nation’s incredibly high expectation levels.

“Both are very experienced so I don’t think they’ll feel any added pressure,” said Clark.

“I think at the back of their minds they will think they should have medalled in the synchro, and that will keep them focussed.

“They've shown for a long time now they can handle the expectation and I’m confident they will make the final and be in with a shot of a medal.”

Daley and Waterfield missed out on a medal in the 10m synchro competition, and there have been no British diving medals at the Games so far.

Tonight's competition starts with 32 divers in the preliminary round. The top 18 will progress to a semi-final at 10am on Saturday, and then 12 will progress to the final later that day at 8.30pm.

Clark said Daley and Waterfield both have two particularly spectacular dives in their lockers which can yield scores of 100.00 or more. The first is four-and-a-half forward somersaults, and the second two-and-a-half backward somersaults with two-and-a-half twists.

“Their scores for those big dives will be crucial," explained Clark.

"Everyone does six dives, and to be in the running for a medal at this level you can't afford to have one bad dive.”

China’s Qui Bo will start as favourite, and Clark singled out American David Boudia as another dangerman.

He also said the Mexicans can execute some of the hardest dives in the world, and that he expects the Russians to challenge.

Clark said: “The Chinese will be the ones to beat again, but we saw on the springboard (where Russia's Ilya Zakharrov sprung a surprise by taking gold ahead of Chinese duo Qin Kai and He Chong) that they are not guaranteed the gold.

"The Chinese do so many more hours of training than any other nation, and I think that's the case in all sports, and that is reflected in the overall medal table.

"But they are still only human and the occasion can get to them to, so they can be beaten."

British duo Monique Gladding and Stacie Powell failed to get past the opening round of the women’s 10m platform on Wednesday evening.

The British pair had designs on a place in tonight’s final but below-par performances meant they were agonisingly left in the two places below the 18-diver cut-off.

Clark said it was a disappointing result. “I think Team GB expected them to make the semi-final and, on a good day, make the final too,” he said.

“Given their experience and abilities I think it’s fair to say both will be disappointed.”

Clark said his favourite moment of the London 2012 diving competition so far was the mammoth 100.07 score awarded to Team GB’s Chris Mears in the 3m springboard final.

The 19-year-old finished ninth but concluded with a front four-and-a-half somersaults to earn one of only two scores over 100 points for a single dive in the final.

“It was great to see Chris join what we call the ‘hundred club’, said Clark.

“He has been through so much so it was a special moment.

“To put into context how impressive that dive was, it was like going under 10 seconds in the 100m.

“So now he’s proved he can compete at the highest level and he will take so much confidence from that.”