BY Reuters Canada,

Former rowing cox Kenneth Lester, Britain's youngest ever male Olympian, has apologized for knocking 13-year-old prodigy Tom Daley out of the record books.

Daley qualified for the British diving team for this year's Olympic Games on Sunday after finishing seventh in the 10-metre platform at the Diving World Cup held in Beijing's Water Cube.

It was thought that, at 14 years and 81 days when the Beijing Games take place in August, the Plymouth schoolboy was set to become the youngest British male Olympian.

However, a typing mistake has denied him the honor. In 1960 Lester was 13 years and 144 days old when he took part in the Olympics, although erroneous British Olympic Association (BOA) record books had his year of birth down as 1937 instead of 1947.

The mistake only came to light when Lester, cox in the coxed pairs at the Rome Games, read the story about Daley's supposed achievement.

"I feel sorry to have said anything," Lester told the BBC on Wednesday. "I can tell him it will be a fantastic experience. I enjoyed every moment."

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