No gold for Mitcham

Gay diving champion Matt Mitcham has blamed a crazy work schedule for his performance at the World Championships in Rome last week.

The Beijing Olympic gold medallist, who was the only competitor on all three boards, finished ninth in the 3m final after qualifying in fifth place.

Mitcham told the awaiting media it was very rough and that he did his best.

I was just trying to do what I could with what I had in the tank, he said.

At the Olympics I was 16th and now I’m ninth so that’s a pretty big improvement.

During the championships, an art exhibition dedicated to Mitcham was launched in Rome.

Titled Matt Dive Gold, the collection of images features artwork from Sydney artist Maree Azzopardi and photographer William Yang.

While it’s been an unsuccessful year for the diver, he plans to continue his training for the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Delhi next year, where he plans to further his workload by competing in all five diving disciplines.