Westcountry diving sensation Tom Daley has played down his chances of winning a medal at this year's Beijing Olympics despite winning gold at the European Championships.

Daley, a 13-year-old from Plymouth, won the 10m platform title in Eindhoven, Holland, on Sunday evening.

However, Daley, who is now Britain’s youngest diving gold medalist, says his best chance of medal will come at the London Olympics in 2012.

"We'll have to wait and see what happens in Beijing. I'm going there for the experience and I'll be going to win medals in London," he said.

"I know I can improve and be better and I know I can become more consistent.

"But I'm not expecting a medal in Beijing, I've just got to get ready for London 2012."

Daley, who is a member of Plymouth Diving Club, secured Olympic qualification last month at the World Cup in Beijing.

Tom Daley: "We'll have to wait and see what happens in Beijing. I'm going there for the experience and I'll be going to win medals in London."

For Daley, it was his first taste of European competition as until his 13th birthday last May he was too young to compete at European Junior level.

But undaunted, the Plymouth youngster showed he was comfortable among the very best that Europe has to offer and held his nerve on the final round to stand head and shoulders below the rest on the top step of the podium.

Daley showed his obvious talent from the very first round with a backward, two-and-a-half somersault, one-and-a-half twist to take a score from the judges of 83.30 to go into round two of six placed second.

With a field comprising World Cup champion Sascha Klein of Germany, World champion Gleb Galperin as well as Dmitriy Dobroskok of Russia and the experience of Ukraine Kostayantyn Milyayev, a medal was always going to be a tall order for the small diver.

Daley kept pace with the leaders with a confident forward, three-and-a-half, piked to score 79.50 and put him third on 162.80 but he missed his entry on his inward, three-and-a-half with tuck and a low score of 59.20 saw him slip to sixth with a score of 222.00 at the end of the third round.

Daley wasn't alone with his error with world number one at the moment Klein missing two dives in a row and Galperin, returning from injury, also struggling. Dobroskok had the miss of the day on his fourth round to fall off the pace with a score of just 25.00.

His armstand, back, three somersaults with tuck saw Daley leading the event going into the penultimate round as it draw four 10s from the judges to give him 94.40 and a total of 316.40.

Daley secured a medal on his fifth dive, a backwards, three-and-a-half with tuck, to receive yet another four 10s, a score of 97.35 and a total of 413.75 but Klein had recovered from his earlier form to sit second with just one dive to go.

With most of the more experienced divers opting for their big dives, with a degree of difficulty score of 3.8, Daley had to relay on perfection on his 3.4DD to stand a chance of the gold and a European title at just 13-years-old.

And it wasn't his best dive of the competition but Daley did enough with his reverse, three-and-a-half with tuck to take 78.20 to give him a total of 491.95 to take his first senior international title.

Klein pushed Daley all the way with his final dive and a score of 487.60 to take the silver and Italy’s Francesco Dell Uomo took the bronze in 481.30.