China’s Chang Yani, 22, finally added gold to her 2023 silver and 2022 bronze medal on the women’s 3m springboard on Friday night at Hamad Aquatic Center. She led after each of the five rounds and scored 354.75 points. Her teammate, Chen Yiwen, 24, was going for her third consecutive gold medal but took silver this time. When Chen beat Chang in 2023, the winning margin was exactly 18.0 points. On Friday, Chang prevailed by 18.15 points.

Two-time Olympian Suji Kim, 25, of South Korea, earned the bronze with 311.25 points.

Also of note: Australia’s 2019 world championship bronze medalist, Maddison Keeney, 27, threw the hardest dive of the competition in the final round. Her forward 2½ with two twists carried a 3.4 degree of difficulty. It wasn’t her highest-scoring dive, but 61.20 points put her 0.30 points ahead of Sarah Bacon and Keeney eventually took fourth place, missing the podium by 8.30 points.

Bacon, however, added the most drama to the contest. The two-time world silver medalist on the 1m springboard was just six points behind Chen, in third, with two dives to go, but Bacon’s approach to her fourth dive was off and her forward 3½ unraveled, scoring 35.65. Bacon’s final dive (a forward 2½ with one twist), was redemptive and scored 73.50 points (the second-highest scoring dive of the entire competition), and put her in fifth.

Afterwards, the new 3m world champion, Chang, said her victory, “means a lot to me. I am honored, but after every competition, there is a new start. Now I need to work harder towards the Olympics.”

Silver medalist Chen said, “This result is not as good as I thought, but it is not too bad. I feel like I am holding back a little bit on my dives. The coach told me to find my own style which I have been struggling with for a long time.”

Two-time world champion Chen added that silver, “might be a once in a lifetime thing,” calling it a potential “warning sign for me so I could work on the mistakes before the Olympics.”

Kim said of her 2024 bronze, “I still can’t believe it, it’s an amazing feeling! This one is really, really special to me. I think I [had] a rather lucky day when I won the bronze medal in 1m springboard back in 2019. Tonight in the 3m springboard – which is an Olympic event and includes all the top contenders – I felt more motivated. I cried after my last dive. It’s the first time I ended a competition in tears, so this proves the intensity of the feelings this success has brought to me.”

Next

Diving concludes on Saturday with two finals: mixed 3m synchro followed by the grand finale: men’s 10m platform in which China’s Yang Hao will seek his first gold after taking two silvers and a bronze, but he will have to defeat the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, Cao Yuan. Notably, last year’s champion Cassiel Rousseau won’t defend his title.

In Doha, Rousseau focused on helping Australia secure an Olympic berth in men’s 10m synchro, which he achieved on Thursday. On Friday morning, the upbeat Australian was recognized as the 2023 male diver of the year.