China Storms to the Forefront of the Diving Competition on Days 3/4 at Doha Worlds

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – DIVING

• Feb. 1-10, 2024
• Hamad Aquatic Center
  • Doha, Qatar
• Schedule
• Results

China roared onto the scene on days 3 and 4 of the diving competition at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, including the first big head-to-head of the competition so far in the women’s platform competition.

Day 3: Men’s 3 Meter Synchro

China sat out the first two days of diving competition in Doha, eschewing the 1-meter and team events that are not part of the Olympic schedule.

But on day 3, they roared back with a dominating performance in men’s 3-meter synchro competition, with Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan scoring 442.41 points, nearly 60 points ahead of their closest competition.

1. China (Long Daoyi/Wang Zongyuan) – 442.41
2. Italy (Lorenzo Marsaglia/Giovanni Tocci) – 384.24
3. Spain (Adrian Abadia/Nicolas Garcia) – 383.23
4. Mexico (Rodrigo Diego/Osmar Olvera) – 383.19
5. Great Britain (Anthony Harding/Jack Laugher) – 376.26
6. Ukraine (Oleh Kolodiy/Danlylo Konovalov) – 363.12
7. Poland (Kacper Lesiak/Andrzej Szeszutek) – 362.04
8. South Korea (Yi Jae-gyeong/Kim Yeong-taek) – 351.21

The Chinese were dominant, with the most difficult dive schedule and the highest point in every round except the 2nd (where they were tied for 13th in the compulsory dives, where there’s not much room to be lost).

The rest of the final, though, was a wild affair, with silver, bronze, and 4th place separated by just 1.05 points.

That included a historic bronze medal for the Spanish pair Adrian Abadia and Nicolas Garcia, who took the first diving medal in their country’s history.

Mexico has been off to a hot start at these World Championships, with three medals in the first two days of competition, but a flop on the 3rd dive, scoring just 51 points (22nd-best out of 27 teams in the finals). While they were outstanding and medal-worthy on every other round, the 15/23 points they lost versus their primary competitors was a hill they couldn’t overcome.

The American pair of Andrew Capobianco and Quentin Henninger finished 9th, while the Frenchmen Jules Bouyer and Alexis Jandard, who won bronze at last year’s World Championships, were just 12th here, never really in the fight.

Day 4: Women’s 10-Meter Platform

Quan Hongchan, the Olympic gold medalist in Tokyo at only 14-years old, finally got the proverbial monkey off her back by winning the women’s 10-meter platform on Monday in Doha.

She had been the runner-up at each of the past two World Championships behind her countrymate Chen Yuxi, the three-time defending World Champion in this event, who is only 18 herself.

The two Chinese divers soared ahead of the field as the only two divers north of 400 points. They also combined for seven perfect 10 ratings from judges, with Quan earning five and Chen two.

1. Quan Hongchan, China – 436.25
2. Chen Yuxi, China – 427.80
3. Andrea Spendolini-Sireix, Great Britain – 377.10
4. Kim Mi-rae, North Korea – 349.10
5. Sarah Jodoin Di Maria, Italy – 322.15
6. Louis Toulson, Great Britain – 321.60
7. Gabriela Agundez, Mexico – 316.30
8. Caeli McKay, Canada – 310.05

“It is a very beautiful feeling to hold it in my hand,” Quan said of her gold medal. “I also think the mascot [whale shark] is very cute. After this competition, my next target is the Olympic gold. I wish to make more progress. There are no limits. I do not put too much pressure on myself because I am still young.”

She tempered her excitement, though, acknowledging a few mistakes on her back dives, saying “I am not as excited as you think about winning this gold medal. Actually, I do not think I did my best today. I made a couple of mistakes in my back dives.”

But if she struggled there, the judges didn’t notice. On her 4th dive, a back 3 1/2 (207C), she scored four perfect 10s from seven judges. The 97.35 points she scored on that dive was the highest by any diver in the final.

The two American divers, Katrina Young (20th) and Daryn Wright (24th) didn’t advance out of prelims.