Tom Daley’s “whirlwind” day ended with a second gold medal as he made it two out of two from the 10m platform in Delhi this evening.

The straight-As student from Plymouth put in a world class performance to take the gold above Australian Olympic champion Matt Mitcham, whom he trailed after rounds two and three.

He said coming second to the Aussie in the preliminaries meant he had “something to fight for” in the final.

And the English world champion reacted to losing the lead in the second round of the final with perfect tens in the third round. He went ahead in the fourth and only extended his lead from there.

Daley’s final dive, a backwards three and a half somersault which scored 94.05, was typical of a nerveless performance that belied his 16 years.

“Today has just been a whirlwind for me,” he said. “It is just incredible to get another gold. As soon as I stood up there I just gave it everything I could. And I had to do the dive of my life.”

Eighteen year-old Max Brick from Southampton, who won gold with Daley yesterday in the men’s 10m platform synchro, came eighth in the final.

In the women’s 3m springboard final, Leeds diver Rebecca Gallantree finished fifth, with 13 year-old Alicia Blagg tenth.

Gallantree said: “That was another close finish with everything to play for right up to the last dive. I dived well but not well enough for a medal unfortunately. The Aussies are tough and they beat me today.

“There's still more I want to achieve in this event and I’ll go back home now, strip my dives right down and start again with the hard work I need to do to make sure I’m on the podium next time.”

Double Commonwealth gold medallist Daley was also already thinking about the future. “This performance gives me a lot of confidence for the off-season and the new dives I want to have ready for next year,” he said.