Josh Sollenberger of the US celebrated Thanksgiving in Rio by winning 1m gold in the boys’ 16-18 division on Day 5 of the World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships. In girls’ 3m synchro, not even 35-degree temperatures could stop Ukraine from victory.
RIO DE JANEIRO – Under a blazing Brazilian sun on Thursday, two more sets of junior world championship medals were awarded. Both featured dramatic and unexpected endings. Here’s how they both went down.
Girls 3m Synchro
Fourteen nations competed in the girls’ synchro 3m final – the last synchro event to be contested in Rio.
Ukraine’s Kseniia Bochek and Diana Karnafel took an immediate lead on their first dive and held the No. 1 spot for all five rounds to claim the gold with 278.58 points. Italy’s Giorgia De Sanctis and Rebecca Ciancaglini (a freshman at the University of California-Berkeley) saved their best dive for last, which proved to be crucial to claiming the silver medal, 13.8 points behind the winners. Germany’s Zoe Marie Schneider and Aliana Reihs were the last pair to dive and nearly beat the Italians. Instead, they took the bronze, just 0.30 points away from a silver-medal tie.
For Bochek, Thursday’s gold was her third medal in Rio. The Kiev-based diver also had a pair of bronze medals, from the team event and the 1m springboard for 14-15 year olds. She had only been diving synchro with Karnafel for a month – at most.
The partnership was the coaches’ decision, “but we did so much hard work,” Bochek said. “At our camp in Mexico just before coming here, we were training synchro every day.”
Karnafel said two other things that contributed to their success. “Listening to your coach. Also, we were very focused on every dive.”
The Italian silver medalists also surprised themselves. Even though they were best friends and had competed together since last year, now that Ciancaglini, 18, attends college in California and De Sanctis, 17, remains in Rome, they hadn’t been able to train together for the past five months – until today.
“So it was crazy,” Ciancaglini said of the silver medal.
Meanwhile, the 15-year-old German bronze medalists were a bit surprised to have beaten the older girls. Reihs said that when she woke up this morning, she thought they might finish in the top-6.
Schneider added, “We thought we have no chance so we were a little bit more relaxed than the other [girls]. It is our last stop this year so we have to have fun. We know that we have easiest dives, so we are self-confident about [them]. And now, we see the result!”
Boys A – 1m Springboard
Later in the day, American Josh Sollenberger won his second gold medal in Rio – in the 1m event for boys ages 16-18. (He had already helped the US win the mixed team event on Day 1.) The event format required that the points from the first five dives in prelims carry over into the final score, so the Indiana University freshman started the final in 11th place (of the 12 who had made the cut), with 178.05 points.
In the first three rounds, the lead changed three times. Sollenberger took the No. 1 spot in round three with a back 2½ so clean that it scored 70.50 points and sent his coach springing all over the pool deck like a pogo stick. He followed it up with two consistent dives and sealed the victory with 503.55 points for his 10-dive total.
Miguel Esteban Tovar of Colombia took the silver with 494.55 points – which felt strangely familiar. At the 2022 junior world championships, Tovar had also earned 1m silver, except he was 14 back then and competing in the younger (group B) division.
Third place on Thursday was anyone’s guess. Would it be Cuba’s Frank Rosales Triana who was already in third before the final dive? Would Yan Xin of China rebound out of fourth place with a huge score as the last diver of the day? Or would it be Iran’s Sam Vajerhelabad who had been in the top five all afternoon?
In the end, it was none of them. Max Otto of Germany claimed the bronze. He didn’t even know it until his teammates told him. Vajerhelabad ended up fourth, just three-tenths of a point off the podium. Matej Nevescanin of Croatia placed fifth (after leading in the second round of the final). Yan placed seventh. Rosales was ninth.
Sollenberger, 18, said afterwards, “Coming out of prelims was little rough, but the starts of my dives felt really good. I knew I could find the water. I figured [I’d finish] maybe around fifth. This is my first junior worlds,” and since it’s Thanksgiving, the biggest American holiday, “I’m gonna go feast at dinner.”
Silver medalist Tovar of Colombia, said that “I’ve been training very hard in Cali, morning and afternoon. And that’s why the results come.” Compared to his silver medal at the last junior world championships, Tovar said, “This competition was more difficult, for sure” because the divers were older and stronger. He also changed two dives since then, adding a 107C (a forward 3½) which was his fourth dive in the final, and his last dive, a 5152B (forward 2½ with a twist that carried a 3.2 degree of difficulty).
Bronze medalist Otto was the most nonchalant about making the podium. “I think it was a very great competition,” he said. “I just did my thing and it happened. I didn’t watch China’s last dive. I didn’t realize [I took third.]”
Otto had also competed in Montreal in 2022, but the bronze was his first junior medal. When he gets home, he said, “I will hang it on my wall.”
Next: Six events remain at the 2024 World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships. Friday will feature the 3m springboard event for boys 14-15 years old, followed by girls’ platform for ages 16-18.