It was Chen (Yiwen) vs. Chen (Jia) as the synchro partners finished 1-2, ahead of Italy’s Chiara Pellacani in the women’s 3m final on Saturday. Chen Yiwen’s victory gave her three golds in Singapore and a third 3m title.
SINGAPORE – A few months ago, Chen Yiwen, 26, confessed that her motivation was flagging after the 2024 Paris Olympics where she swept gold in both women’s 3m and in 3m synchro.
On Saturday, however, it didn’t seem that way as the double world champion claimed her third title on 3m by a large margin: 33.30 points ahead of her new 3m synchro partner Chen Jia, 20.
“To execute my dives so well today is a bit of a surprise,” Chen Yiwen said, “because I’ve been a bit tired the last two days. My training since I arrived here hasn’t been ideal.”
The third round proved to be decisive as Chen Yiwen overtook Chen Jia and scored more than 80 points on each of her last two dives to give China its ninth gold medal in 12 diving events with one event to go.
As the competition progressed, Chen Yiwen admitted that “it’s quite hard to not focus on external influences. You just need to try your best to…pull your focus back onto yourself. During dives it’s best to not overthink.”
Chen Jia, the runner-up said that overall, she was satisfied with her performance in Singapore because it was her debut in such a big event, but also acknowledged that “it’s clear that my performance in the second half of the year hasn’t been as strong [as the first half]. There’s some physical and mental fatigue.”
Nonetheless, while Chen and Chen never fell out of the top two positions, the bronze-medal race was wide open.
Italy’s Chiara Pellacani, 22, and Japan’s Sayaka Mikami, 24, and Australia’s Maddison Keeney, 29, were all in the hunt. Keeney had risen from seventh place to third and had a chance to stay there by performing the hardest dive of the contest in the last round: a double twisting forward 2½ with 3.4 DD.
As the third-to-last diver, all Keeney had to do was exceed 56.80 points to overtake Pellacani for the bronze. It would have been her 11th career meal at the world championships. It was well within reach. But then, surprisingly, Keeney re-started her dive and incurred a 2.0-point penalty. After she executed the dive, she entered the water partly twisted, scored 44.20 points, and Pellacani took the bronze instead.
Lena Hentschel of Germany was fourth, followed by Mikami (fifth) and Keeney (sixth).
Like Keeney, Pellacani had also been in seventh place earlier in the contest.
“I usually start off slow in the first round but I think the most important thing is to stay consistent,” the Italian said. “I’m really happy that I managed to pull through, and I’m satisfied with the result.”
Now that Pellacani captured three medals in Singapore, she planned to take a short break then return to the University of] Miami to continue her studies.
“I’m graduating in December,” she said. “After that, I’ll keep working towards the 2028 Olympics. There are still some things that I have to improve in my diving.”
Up Next:
The last diving event of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships will be the men’s 10m on Sunday at 17:30 Singapore time. Last year Yang Hao and Cao Yuan went 1-2 for China. Neither entered the event this year. Instead, keep an eye on Zhao Renjie who celebrated his 14th birthday in March. He will try to defeat big names like 2023 world champion, Cassiel Rousseau of Australia, 24, and Japan’s 2024 Olympic silver medalist Rikuto Tamai, 18, who took silver in this event in 2022 at age 15.