China Wins 13th Consecutive Women’s 3-Meter Synchro Title

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – DIVING

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

Women’s 10m Platform – Synchro

After obliterating the competition in the individual 10m event earlier in the meet, the Chinese pair of Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan did the same in the synchro event on Tuesday. They finished 43.52 points ahead of the runners-up from North Korea. That marks a third-straight World Championship for the pair.

While they won big, the gap between them and the field narrowed slightly. The score was their lowest of their three titles, and North Korea’s was the best score for silver medalists at the World Championships since Kim Mi Rae and then-partner Kim Kuk-hyang scored 336.48 in 2017.

Chen, 18, and Quan, 16, head into the Paris Olympics then as their only real competition.

“I’m grateful to Hongchan Quan because she stood by me and she gave me strength and motivation,” Chen said.

Quan replied that “I always feel safe and assured when I compete along with [Chen].”

The North Koreans earned their quota spot with a runner-up finish, as did Mexico, Ukraine, and Canada.

North Korea bumped last year’s silver medalists Andrea Spendolini-Siriex and Lois Toulson to bronze. The Brits weren’t as good in the 4th round (107B) or 5th round (407C) this year as they were last year, and that was the difference.

That’s relevant because the medalists all completed the exact same dive schedule, in the same order, and all three said they planned to keep those lists for the Olympics. In other words, to beat China, you have to be better than them in their dives – a nearly-impossible task.

Still, the Brits said the experience gave them confidence.

“I’m really happy to stand alongside her,” Toulson said. “It gives me confidence being next to such a good diver and such a good friend.”

“We really enjoyed ourselves,” Spendolini Sirieix said of Tuesday’s performance. “We didn’t have the pressure. We gave it our all.  We know that this is a starting point; there’s only up from here.”

1. China (Chen Yuxi/Quan Hongchan) – 362.22 (Previously qualified)
2. North Korea (Jo jin Mi/Kim Mi Rae) – 320.70 (Olympic quota spot)
3. Great Britain (Andrea Spendolini Siriex/Lois Toulson) – 299.34 (Previously qualified)
4. Mexico (Gabriela Agundez Garcia/Alejandra Orozco Loza) – 296.34 (Olympic quota spot)
5. Ukraine (Kseniia Bailo/Sofia Lyskun) – 292.50 (Olympic quota spot)
6. Canada (Caeli McKay/Kate Miller) – 287.34 (Olympic quota spot)
7. Germany (Christina Wassen/Elena Wassen) – 277.98
8. USA (Jessica Parratto/Delaney Schnell) – 271.26 (Previously qualified)

Women’s 3m Springboard – Synchro

Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen won their third-consecutive world title in women’s 3-meter. That marks China’s 13th consecutive World Championship in the event, meaning they’ve won every version since it was first offered in 2001.

Chang also won gold in this event in 2017 when she was 15, with a different partner.

According to Chen, the gold medal “definitely gives us a lot of confidence [but] we still have much work to do.”

She also commented on the change of format at this year’s World Championships which saw no semi-final and a 20-team final, which stretched the competition out substantially longer than normal.

The Australian pair of Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith finished 2nd, 23 points behind the Chinese. They weren’t the Australian representatives at last year’s World Championships (Brittany O’Brien and Georgia Sheehan were, finishing 6th in Doha).

The British pair of Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen finished 3rd, marking Great Britain’s 7th medal of the meet. That’s the second-most behind only China’s 9.

The US had their biggest success of the meet so far when Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer placed 4th to earn the US a quota spot for the Paris Olympic Games.

1. China (Chang Yani/Chen Yiwen) – 323.43 (Previously qualified)
2. Australia (Maddison Keeney/Anabelle Smith) – 300.45 (Olympic quota spot)
3. Great Britain (Yasmin Harper/Scarlett Mew Jensen) – 281.70
4. USA (Alison Gibson/Krysta Palmer) – 279.30 (Olympic quota spot)
5. Ukraine (Viktoriya Kesar/Anna Pysmenska) – 277.47 (Olympic quota spot)
6. Germany (Lena Hentschel/Jette Muller) – 273.93 (Olympic quota spot)
7. Mexico (Arantxa Chavez Munoz/Paola Pineda Vazquez) – 269.55
8. Italy (Elena Bertocchi/Chiara Pellacani) – 260.28 (Previously qualified)

Men’s 3m Springboard

Another Chinese 1-2 finish on 3-meter, this time it was the younger Wang Zongyuan who won over Xie Siyi.

Xie was the 2017 and 2019 champion on 3-meter, and the Olympic Champion in 2021, but Wang has won all of the big medals since – including three straight World Championships and the Asian Games last summer.

Wang previously won the synchro event with Long Daoyi earlier in the meet.

Wang scored 538.70 points, including a massive 100.70 on his final dive, a forward 4 1/2. That was the highest-scoring dive of the competition by more than seven points – a huge margin. He scored 8.5s and 9.0s on that dive – the second-most difficult on his schedule – higher judges marks than any other dive he performed.

The threat to the Chinese dominance in Paris is Mexico’s Osmar Olvera, who was 2nd here – but last year beat Long Daoyi in this event. While his execution isn’t on the level of Wang, Olvera matches his difficulty level and a bit of a flub on his 4th dive was the difference. That dive, one of the easiest on his lineup, netted him only 6’s and 6.5’s, the difference between bronze and silver.

That’s a new dive in his lineup. Last year, he used a 307C in that slot (degree of difficulty 3.5), but this year replaced it with a 207C (3.6 degree of difficulty). The dive is a 3 1/2 tuck, with the change from 307C to 207C moving it from a reverse dive to a back dive.

Notably absent from the final was 2016 Olympic champion and three-time World Championships bronze medalist Jack Laugher. On his 2 1/12 with three twists pike dive in the fourth round of prelims, he had a failed dive, scoring zero points and keeping him from the final.

Also in the final, the Olympic hosts from France earned two quota spots, which frees up their automatic entry to go to another diver to be named later.

1. Wang Zongyuan, China – 538.70 (Previously qualified)
2. Xie Siyi, China – 516.10 (Previously quota spot earned by Long Daoyi)
3. Osmar Olvera Ibarra, Mexico – 498.40 (Previously qualified)
4. Luis Felipe Uribe Bermudez, Colombia – 443.15 (Previously qualified)
5. Jules Bouyer, France – 439.50 (Olympic quota spot)
6. Ross Haslam, Great Britain – 438.60 (Olympic quota spot)
7. Moritz Wesemann, Germany – 433.75 (Previously qualified)
8. Woo Haram, South Korea – 424.50 (Olympic quota spot)
9. Sho Saka, Japan – 414.60 (Olympic quota spot)
10. Li Shixin, Australia – 406.40 (Previously qualified)
11. Gwendal Bisch, France – 380.80 (Olympic quota spot)

Men’s 10 Meter Platform – Synchro

Another event, another three-peat for China. Lian Junjie and Yang Hao won their third-consecutive World Championship together, and Yang’s hao as an individual, with a dominating 48.4-point margin of victory.

That win was ahead of the British hero Tom Daley and his partner Noah Williams. Daley won his second medal of the competition, following gold in the team event, just six months after a return from a two year diving hiatus.

The Ukrainian pair of Kirill Boliukh (16) and Oleksii Sereda (18), one of the youngest duos in the competition, too bronze. While those ages would not be unusual in the women’s competition, male divers tend to mature at an older age. They took silver in 2023.

Of note, Australian Cassiel Rousseau, the 2023 World Champion on platform individually, decided not to defend his title in that event, instead focusing on this synchro event. That gamble paid off, earning Australia a quota spot along with partner Domonic Bedggood.

1. China (Lian Junje/Yang Hao) – 470.76 (Previously qualified)
2. Great Britain (Tom Daley/Noah Williams) – 422.37 (Olympic Quota Spot)
3. Ukraine (Kirill Boliukh/Oleksii Sereda) – 406.47 (Previously qualified)
4. Mexico (Kevin Berlin Reyes/Randal Willards Valdez) – 390.87 (Previously qualified)
5. Canada ( Rylan Wiens/Nathan Zsombor-Murray) – 388.20 (Olympic Quota Spot)
6. Australia (Domonic Bedggood/Cassiel Rousseau) – 384.15 (Olympic Quota Spot)
7. Germany (Timo Barthel, Jaden Shiloh Eikermann Gregorchuk) – 373.71 (Olympic Quota Spot)
8. North Korea (Im Yong Myong/Ko Che Won) – 372.96

Medals Table After February 8

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	China	7	2	0	9
2	Great Britain	1	2	4	7
3	Australia	1	2	1	4
4	Mexico	1	1	2	4
5	North Korea	0	2	0	2
6	Italy	0	1	0	1
7	Egypt	0	0	1	1
	Spain	0	0	1	1
	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Totals (9 events)		10	10	10	30