Matteo Santoro became the first Italian man since 1975 to win a world championship title in diving on Wednesday – and he did it with Chiara Pellacani in mixed 3m synchro. Australia took silver, China bronze. Only 2.43 points split first from third.
SINGAPORE – The plot thickened in the fourth round of the mixed 3m synchro event on Wednesday.
After three rounds, China’s Cheng Zilong, 19, and Li Yajie, 23, had built an 11.70-point lead over Italy, but just then, the Chinese pair failed to rip the entry of their back 2½ pike and scored just 58.50 points. Eight pairs later, smelling an opportunity, Italy pulled ahead of the field with a successful forward 3½ pike.
In the fifth and final round, China redeemed itself with a 72-point dive, and forced Italy’s Chiara Pellacani, 22, and Matteo Santoro, 18, to score at least 66.87 points to overtake Cheng and Li.
Expectations were high; the Italian duo was vying for its fourth consecutive medal in the event (to go with two silvers and a bronze).
Italy’s dive was clean. When the scoreboard flashed 69.30, Pellacani and Santoro were exuberant.
But Australia had the hardest dive of the competition remaining: a forward double-twisting 2½ with a 3.4 degree of difficulty.
The Aussies needed at least 78 points to top China, and at least 80.43 to take gold.
Anything was possible. Maddison Keeney, 29, was already a two-time world champion in this event. Her third partner, Cassiel Rousseau, 24, was also a world-beater, but best known as a platform specialist after winning the men’s individual 10m title in 2023.
In the end, Australia’s final dive earned the highest score of the night: 79.56 – but it was 0.87 shy of gold, and enough to relegate China to the bronze.
With that, Santoro became the first – and only – Italian man to win a world championship diving title since Klaus Dibiasi’s back-to-back 10m titles in 1973 and 1975. The pair had also earned Italy’s fourth diving gold medal in world championship history, after Tania Cagnotto’s 2015 victory in women’s 1m springboard.
Pellacani said, “I couldn’t believe it, we started screaming because it was crazy to see on the board that we were first. It feels incredible. We worked hard for this.”
Pellacani added, “We didn’t know that [China] made mistakes, because we weren’t watching the competition. We knew that we were doing great, so we were just trying to keep doing the same thing as in practice.”
Before their final dive, she said, “The heart was beating really fast, but we were able to keep calm and do a great dive. We’ve known each other for so long. We grew up together and it’s like a brother-sister relationship. I think this really helped us on the board because we trust each other.”
As for its impact back home, Pellacani said, “I hope that a lot of people see it, so that more diving can start diving and just fall in love with the sport, as we did.”
Santoro, through tears of joy, said, “I was hoping for this, but I didn’t expect to take the gold and to beat the Chinese pair. We cried because there’s so many emotions and we didn’t understand anything.”
Runner-up Keeney, meanwhile, was delighted with the silver she earned with Rousseau. “We’re really excited. This is the first time we've competed in this event together and we did not really train it,” she said, “but it was so much fun. The competition was really close, which made it really thrilling for the spectators and for us.”
Rousseau added, “I know our fourth start [a forward 3½ pike that scored 65.10 points] wasn't as good as it could have been, but it also could have been a lot worse. We gave it our all on the fifth dive and that just made it a good competition.”
Bronze medalist Li, reflecting on China’s fourth dive, said, “We had some issues. When we were preparing to jump, we had already stepped out, and the whistle was blown. Maybe Chen didn’t hear it, but I was the one calling the rhythm, and I did hear it. That might have had some impact. We were worried that if we jumped, they might not give us a score and might even give us zero. It wasn't a matter of whether we were in sync or not. I don’t think this will affect me too much. There will still be other competitions in the future.”
Cheng added, “On the fifth dive, we tried to forget about the mistakes in our previous round as quickly as possible and focus on preparing for the next. I didn’t perform my dives that well today. I’m primarily a platform diver and I need to improve in the springboard, so that’s something to work on in future practice sessions.”
Up Next:
On Thursday, in the women’s 10m final, find out who will emerge to challenge China’s three-time world champion and 2024 silver medalist Chen Yuxi, 24, in the absence of her teammate and two-time Olympic gold medalist and defending world champion Quan Hongchan. Also notably absent: Great Britain’s 2024 world bronze medalist Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, who announced on 2 July via Instagram that she was withdrawing from the championships after fighting through “mental blocks.”