In a tight battle of skill, 21-year-old Osmar Olvera Ibarra took down two Chinese legends to become the first Mexican diver to win a 3m world title. China’s Cao Yuan took silver and Wang Zongyuan (bronze) was denied a four-peat.
SINGAPORE – The streak is over.
China had won every gold medal in men’s 3m diving at the world championships since 2007 – until Friday.
Mexico’s Osmar Olvera Ibarra defeated triple world champion Wang Zongyuan, 23, and the 2016 Olympic gold medalist Cao Yuan, 30, to win Mexico’s first 3m world title.
“It’s a dream come true: to be a world champion in an Olympic event,” Olvera Ibarra said. “In the morning, I was really sure today I could beat the Chinese divers. I thought ‘I will be a champion today. Today is the day I get a gold medal.’” (Already, he had earned three silvers in Singapore.)
In the first four rounds, Cao, Wang, and Olvera Ibarra traded spots in the top-3 – but Olvera Ibarra scored big when he needed it. He earned 102.60 points on his penultimate dive (a forward 4½ with 3.8 DD) to pull ahead of Cao by 0.55 points going into the last dive, which was also Olvera’s hardest: a triple twisting forward 2½ with 3.9 DD.
Cao and Wang had the advantage of being the last two athletes to dive.
The pressure was on.
“I knew I needed a great dive, so I just focused, controlled myself and did my job,” Olvera Ibarra said.
When it was over, each diver in the top-4 had scored more than 90 points on at least two of their six dives, but Olvera Ibarra was the lone diver to do it three times -- including that whopping 102.60 toward his winning total of 529.55.
Cao took silver, trailing Olvera Ibarra by 6.85 points. Wang finished third, 7.15 points behind Cao.
Cao said afterwards, “For me, the silver medal is a breakthrough. It was actually expected. I'm very satisfied with second place. Technically, I'm pretty stable. But I'm probably still worrying too much about other things. Maybe injuries have affected my training. My ability to recover isn't good enough, so I've missed some training time.”
Wang, the bronze medalist said, “If I could have performed the way I did in the semi-final, I think [victory] would have been no problem. I’m disappointed, but of course I must accept it.”
“It’s a very competitive field,” Wang added. “This will help me grow and not rest on my laurels. We’ll spur one another on and push one another to grow and get better. With strong opponents, we’ll only get stronger ourselves.”
The race for the next three places was also tight as Jordan Houlden of Great Britain, 27, Jules Bouyer of France, 23, and Moritz Wesemann of Germany, 23, finished fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively. Houlden set a personal best with 492.10 points – as did Wesemann with 467.10.
Footnote: Jack Laugher, 30, of Great Britain was eliminated in Thursday’s preliminaries. The triple world championship bronze medalist in 3m placed 26th; only the top 18 advanced to the semifinals.
Up Next:
The last event for women (3m) will be contested on Saturday. Last year’s world champion, Chang Yani, is not in Singapore, so watch for the reigning Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Chen Yiwen, 26, and her teammate Chen Jia, 20. On Tuesday, Chen and Chen won gold for China in women’s 3m synchro.