With Chen Yiwen’s narrow victory on the women’s 3m springboard and Yang Hao’s triumph on the men’s 10m platform on Sunday, People's Republic of China swept all eight gold medals in individual and synchro events at the 2023 World Cup Super Final in Berlin. Canada won the mixed team event in which China didn’t compete.
At the 2023 World Cup Super Final, People's Republic of China clean sweep of the eight Olympic diving events almost didn’t happen. Japan’s Sayaka Mikama came within 2 points of victory in the women’s 3m contest on Sunday. Yang Hao won the men’s 10m event much more easily (56.80 points ahead of Ukraine’s Oleksii Sereda). China then opted out of the mixed team event, allowing Canada to outscore Australia in the final round to claim the last gold medal of the season.
Women’s 3m Springboard
Chen Yiwen won the women’s 3m Springboard Super Final on Sunday – but barely. In the final round, Sayaka Mikami, 22, of Japan threw the most difficult dive in the contest (with 3.4 DD) – and nailed it, applying rare pressure on Chen. But the two-time world champion prevailed and left Mikami the runner-up by 1.55 points. Chang Yani, 21, the 2023 world silver medalist, placed a distant third, 25.65 points behind her winning teammate.
Going into the final round, Chen knew that Mikami was less than 10 points behind her. “I thought 10 points was not that close,” Chen said in English afterwards. The 24-year-oldadmitted that her own dives could have been cleaner. “I missed a lot of details of my dives,” she said. “It’s not supposed to be like this. I’m happy with the result, but…maybe I should do better.”
If Mikami knew how close she was to victory, she didn’t say. “I was trying to really just focus on my dive,” she said. She had been working on that final dive, the forward 2½ with 2 twists pike (with 3.4 DD) for six years. It scored 7.5s for a total of 76.50. If she can gain consistency with it, it could push the women’s 3m event to a new level. (The highest DD among her competitors was 3.1.)
Chang, the third-place finisher, said, “I made some mistakes in the first two [rounds, but] I didn’t look back, just looked forward.” Chang had been the 3m silver medalist at the World Championships in Fukuoka two weeks ago.
Also of note: the 2023 world championships bronze medalist, Pamela Ware, placed fourth, 7.45 points off the podium. The 30-year-old Canadian was plagued by her first dive (a back 2½ pike) which only scored 54 points.
Men’s 10m Platform
In the men’s 10m final, China’s triple world championship medalist Yang Hao, 25, commanded a firm lead through all six rounds but there were plenty of shakeups below. The youngest man in the field, Oleksii Sereda, 17, of Ukraine, and Canada’s Nathan Zsombor-Murray traded second- and third-place back and forth through the first five rounds. In the fourth round, Sereda’s splashy reverse 3½ only scored 47.60 leaving him no room for error. Sereda then pulled together this final two dives (each with 3.6 DD) to take second place. The semi-surprise came in the final round when Great Britian’s Noah Williams snuck past Zsombor-Murray, 20, on his final dive – a more difficult forward 4½ (with 3.7 DD) compared to Zsombor-Murray’s back 2½ with 1½ twists (3.2 DD) to take the bronze.
Worth noting: Newly-minted world champion Cassiel Rousseau, 22, of Australia finished sixth after sitting in ninth position after each of his fist two dives.
Yang was asked if reclaiming the men’s 10m gold for China offered any redemption for his country’s rare loss at the world championships in Fukuoka. “I don’t understand too much about revenge,” he said. “In diving, the only opponent is ourselves. We hope that all of us will dive the best of ourselves.”
Sereda was satisfied to end his season with silver and now, he said, he could “go on vacation with great feelings. I’m going to Slovakia, just to relax, then maybe to Croatia.” He was doubly thankful to achieve a silver in Germany because the S.V. Neptun club in Aachen allowed him to train there last year when Ukraine wasn’t a safe option. “They were helping me when the war got started,” he said. “I have great results here due to them.”
For Williams, 23, third place marked a breakthrough. “The first two legs of the World Cup, I was fifth and sixth. Both times I was close to medal but I messed up my last dive. This time was the opposite,” he said. “Before the last dive, I still felt like I had a chance. I tried to figure out what scores I needed and it worked out.”
Mixed Team
Canada closed the season by taking gold in the mixed team event. Australia was leading after the penultimate round, thanks largely to giant dives by Li Shixin on 3m (earning 79.95 points on a 3.9 DD dive) and 10m world champion Cassiel Rousseau (who added 90.65 points on his 3.7 DD solo dive) but an asynchronous final dive by Rousseau and Nikita Hains on the platform left room for Canada’s Caeli McKay and Nathan Zsombor-Murray to eclipse the Aussies’ score by 4.8 points on their last dive for the win. Great Britain finished third.
Notably, China did not start after winning all eight of the other events in Berlin.
McKay said of Canada’s victory, “We’re really happy. It sparks team spirit. We still get super-nervous because we want each other to succeed. With the positive energy, it was super-fun.”
Runner-up Hains of Australia echoed the sentiment about the team event. “I feel like it brings the whole team together. Instead of focusing on yourself you can focus on each other. It’s a really fun way to end the season.”
Bronze medalist Noah Williams said Team GB was happy with another medal although he felt, “I let the team down on one of my [10m] dives. I didn’t know I was competing until 20 minutes before. I thought I was done after individual. Next year, I’m sure, we’ll be showing up.”