In the men’s 3m synchro final on Monday, China’s Wang Zongyuan and his new partner, Zheng Jiuyuan, were beyond consistent, giving China its fourth diving gold medal in five events in Singapore. Mexico and Great Britain took silver and bronze, just as they had at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
SINGAPORE – Five of the six Olympic medalists from Paris were in the hunt for gold in the men’s 3m synchro final on Monday.
By round four, China’s two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion Wang Zongyuan, 23, and his partner of only about one month, Zheng Jiuyuan,17, were already ahead of Mexico by 19.17 points. It wasn’t impossible to make up the difference, though, because the 2024 Olympic silver medalists, Osmar Olvera Ibarra, 21, and Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez, 27, had saved the two hardest dives in the competition for the final two rounds.
Ultimately, not even Mexico’s ripped forward 4½ (3.8 DD) and forward 2½ with 3 twists (3.9 DD) that earned 90.06 and 95.94 points could surpass China’s consistency or its final tally of 467.31. Mexico took silver 18.03 points behind China.
The race for bronze was tighter, but Great Britain’s 2024 Olympic bronze medalists and two-time world championship runner-up team of Jack Laugher, 30, and Anthony Harding, 25, prevailed, as the only other duo to clear 400 points (with 405.33).
Ukraine, Italy, and the US placed fourth, fifth and sixth, followed by New Zealand and Germany which had a missed dive in the fourth round (a reverse 3½).
The victory by Wang and Zheng marked a world championship five-peat for China and a four-peat for Wang in men’s 3m synchro.
“I’ve taken part in this event at four world championships,” Wang said. “It’s the highest score out of all four times. My partner Jiuyuan is a far more mature athlete today than two years ago. He’s now able to bear the heavy weight of being an athlete on this stage. He’s proven himself today.”
Silver medalist Celaya Hernandez said, “I’m definitely happy with the performance because we beat our score from Paris, so it’s a PB [personal best] for us. We’re going to keep working on details so that next time we can get the gold.”
For Olvera Ibarra, Monday’s result was his third silver medal in three events so far in Singapore. “We didn’t look at the scores,” he said. “We just enjoyed the whole competition.”
Bronze medalist Laugher was also please with the result. “It’s great for us,” he said. “We both took a long time off this year, me especially. Coming into [a new Olympic] cycle, it can be a bit of a lull sometimes but we’ve worked through it really well. We’ve changed a lot in our lives, in a new club with a new coach, so to come out with a bronze medal today is super positive. I think it puts me in good stead for the individual later this week.”
Up Next:
Later Monday, at 18:00 Singapore time, Chen Yuxi and Zhang Minjie will try to give China its 14th consecutive world championship victory in women’s 10m synchro.