In a final with many mistakes and lack of precision in the entries in the water, China was the most regular duet in the women’s 3m springboard synchro, the first diving event of these Olympic Games at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. The Asians were the team to beat – they never lost this final since 2001, including Olympic Games and FINA World Championships -, but the facility by which they got the gold in 326.40 was perhaps unthinkable at the start of the final. Also predictably, Canada got the silver in 300.78, while the fight for the bronze remained open until the last round. In the end, Germany completed the podium in 284.97.
At the end of the first two rounds –
with limited Degree of Difficulty (DD) -, China and USA shared the first two
positions, with Canada losing precious points with approximative entries from
Jennifer Abel. Shi Tingmao/Wang Han (CHN) and even Alison Gibson/Krysta Palmer
(USA) were more confident, and finished this first stage of the competition
with the same number of points (99.60, at the lead of the eight-duet final).
Canada (Abel competed with Melissa Citrini Beaulieu) was then sixth, while
Germany (Lena Hentschel/Tina Punzel) was fifth.
When serious things began (the last
three rounds with unlimited DD), the quality and regularity of Shi and Wang was
never questioned. Successively performing a 75.60, 74.70 and 76.50 dive, the
Chinese supremacy was never threatened by the rest of the field. In the end,
Shi got her third gold Olympic medal, after winning both the individual and
synchronised final at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She has also nine medals at FINA
World Championships, including eight titles (among them the “double”
individual-synchro, in the last three editions, 2015, 2017 and 2019). Together
with Wang, they were the world champions two years ago in Gwangju and confirm
here in Tokyo a total domination in the last Olympic cycle.
After two silver world linings in
2017 and 2019, Canada was also the natural choice for the second spot, and they
did not disappoint in Japan, concluding the final with two dives over 70 points
(a successful forward 3 ½ somersaults and an inward 2 ½ somersaults). Abel had
finished fourth five years ago in Brazil (with Pamela Ware), but had the bronze
in London 2012. Moreover, at almost 30, she has amassed 10 medals at the FINA
Worlds (six silver and four bronze, since Shanghai 2011).
The third place at these Olympics was
still undecided before the last dive, with Italy (silver in Rio 2016, with
emblematic Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape) then in a better position than
Germany. However, a very shaky last combination from Elena Bertocchi and Chiara
Pellacani (45.90) ruined the Italian hope for a place in the podium. Instead,
the German pair was much better (despite some synchronisation problems),
getting 64.17 for their last attempt, a forward 3 ½ somersaults. It is the
second time Germany medals in this event, since the introduction of the synchro
variant in 2000: at the Beijing Games in 2008, Heike Fischer and Ditte Kotzian
also got the bronze in the Water Cube of the Chinese capital.
Completing the top-8 in Tokyo, the
fourth place went to Mexico (they were third in Gwangju 2019, but with another
pair, including the best female diver in the history of the country, Paola
Espinosa), while host Japan had to content with the fifth spot. Thanks to their
final mistake, the Italians finished seventh, behind Great Britain, but still
in front of the US pair (which had a disastrous fourth round).
BY FINA
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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