The diving competition will open
tomorrow, 15 August at 13:00, in the impressive setting of the Swimming
Stadium. It starts with the team event, with seven participating nations
including the favourites Germany and Ukraine, but also France and Great
Britain, respectively silver and bronze medallists at the last world
championships in Budapest. According to Len's new regulations, the team
competition requires teams to be composed of a minimum of two to a maximum of
four team members, at least one man and one woman, who must perform two
individual dives and one mixed synchronised dive, both from the springboard and
the platform, for a total of six dives in which all six groups of rotations
must be present. Competing for the 13 European titles, which include the men's
and women's individual and synchronised events from the 3m springboard and the
10m platform, individual events from the 1m springboard and mixed 3m and 10m
synchronised events, there will be 110 athletes (55 men, 55 women) from 23
different nations
Great Britain are in Rome with a
strong and compact team. Among the 14 athletes selected, there are the six
medallists from the recent world championships in Budapest: Anthony Harding,
James Heatly, Jack Laugher, Grace Reid, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Noah
Williams.
Jack Laugher will compete as a real
star, after making history in Budapest by becoming the first British diver to
win three medals, all silver, in a single world championship: in the individual
event from the 1m and 3m springboard and, from the same height, paired with new
partner Anthony Harding in the men's synchro event. With British star Thomas
Daley taking a sabbatical after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, it will surely be
the young prodigy Oleksii Sereda to be on the limelight in the men's 10m
platform event. The Ukrainian claimed the gold medal in Kiev in 2019 in front of
his home crowd. He was only 13 years old and was the youngest European diver to
ever secure a European title. In June, he finished second in the mixed 10m
synchronised event at the world championships in Budapest, which is so far his
greatest international achievement.
Huge expectations are on Italy, the
host nation. In the mixed 3m synchronised event Chiara Pellacani and Matteo
Santoro are the big favourites on the eve, having won the 2020 European title
and the world championship silver medal in Budapest in the mixed 3m syncronised
event. Santoro, 15, was the absolute star at the European Junior Diving
Championships who were held in Otopeni, Romania, last July. The Roman athlete
managed to reach the top step of the podium four times, making him the most
successful and therefore most eagerly awaited Under-18 European diver at Roma
2022.
At the EuroJunior, Italy ranked first
in the medal tally, winning six golds and 12 medals in total, while Great
Britain won the most number of medals (13). The Germans also finished in double
figures (10), led by Lotti Hubert, junior champion in the women's 3m
springboard event and silver medallist in the 1m springboard event.
It will be the first European
championships without Patrick Hausding, the German diver who collected a
considerable number of European medals over the years. He retired in May four
months before Roma 2022. At the European championships the youngest athlete is
Alisa Zakarjan from Armenia, who will turn 15 on 6 September 2007. The oldest
is Frenchman Gary Hunt, 38, who will also take part in the high diving
competition. For diving he is only entered in the team and mixed synchronised
events.
No comments:
Post a Comment