Former Commonwealth Games diving champion Peter Waterfield is the latest British athlete to withdraw from the troubled Delhi Games. The England team confirmed on Friday that the 29-year-old had pull out over safety and health fears.

"It has been a very difficult decision to make and I have thought long and hard about it," Waterfield, who won the 10m platform gold in Manchester in 2002 and was a silver medallist at the Athens Olympics, said in a statement.

"My family and I share concerns over safety and illness and as a family we have made the decision together. I'm very disappointed because I feel in the best form of my life.

England's team began travelling on Thursday after team chiefs decided that local organisers in Delhi had made improvements to conditions at the athletes' village which had been widely condemned by many of the competing nations.

Several of the England's leading gold medal hopes have pulled out, including triple jump world champion Phillips Idowu and Olympic 400 metres gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu.