In every diving competition at the Paris Olympics, in order to beat the Chinese divers you must be absolutely perfect and hope the Chinese make major mistakes.
In the men’s synchronized 3m springboard final on Friday, China’s Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan did make mistakes and Mexico’s Juan Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibara were nearly perfect. But in the end, China’s mistakes weren’t big enough, and Mexico was ever so slightly less than perfect. With a final score of 446.1, Long and Wang took gold by 2.07 points over Mexico for China’s sweep of the synchro diving events in Paris.
The pressure was really on for China in the fourth of six rounds on Friday. On the fourth dive, Long and Wang both had poor entry into the water and bent legs on their reverse somersault with 3 1/2 twists. Their score of 77.7 opened the door for someone to overtake the lead, and Mexico stepped right in. Celaya and Olvera performed an inward 3 1/2 somersault, and scored 85.68, the highest scoring dive of the day to that point. The Mexicans moved into first, marking the first time in the Paris Olympics any Chinese divers have trailed.
China’s mistakes were minimal the rest of the way, which didn’t help Mexico – or anyone’s – chances. On dive No. 5, Long and Wang scored 85.68 to move back into first by 1.09 points.
On the final dive, China went first among the podium contenders. Long and Wang did a forward 4 1/2 with a 3.8 degree of difficulty. Mexico’s gold medal hopes lied in the Chinese making a mistake, but if they did it was completely unnoticed by the judges or anyone watching. The dive scored 95.76.
Great Britain’s Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher performed the same dive in Round 6 and scored 94.62, clinching their spot on the podium. They finished the day third for Team GB’s second diving medal in these Olympics.
Celaya and Olvera stepped to the board to perform a forward 2 1/2 with three twists, the toughest dive of the competition with a degree of difficulty of 3.9. The Mexicans jumped, flipped, spun, and were nearly flawless, but not enough. The dive scored 94.7, and they accepted their silver.
Friday was Celaya and Olvera’s personal best day of synchro diving by more than 20 points. Their silver was the first Olympic medal for Mexico in the event.
The men’s synchro springboard was the closest competition for China in Paris so far. The country won the previous synchro events by an average of 31.05 points. With the win, China gets a synchro sweep as the diving competition now moves to the individual events. The Chinese are still on pace to win gold in every diving event in Paris, a feat never done by a single country since diving moved to eight competitions.
It was a tough day for the American duo of Tyler Downs and Greg Duncan, who finished eighth out of eight competitors. They looked good on the first two dives, and sat tied for fourth going into Round 3. On the third dive, a forward 2 1/2 somersault with two twists, Duncan slipped out of the flip and just barely made it into the water headfirst. The mistake dropped the American’s execution score to 2, and they finished with a 37.4 on the dive.
Italy’s Lorenzo Marsaglia and Giovanni Tocci (403.05) finished fourth, followed by Jules Bouyer and Alexis Jandard, of France (369.30), Adrian Abadia and Nicolas Garcia, of Spain (361.62), and Oleg Kolodiy and Danylo Konovalov, of Ukraine (348.27) in fifth, sixth, and seventh.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.