World Championships: Cassiel Rousseau Wins Platform in China-Free Podium
Cassiel Rousseau finished strong Sunday on the final day at the World Aquatics Championships, the Australian grabbing gold on men’s 10-meter platform.
The shocker of the event was that neither Chinese diver medaled, a down note to end a meet in which they dominated. Oleksii Sereda of Ukraine finished second, his score of 515.20 falling nearly 20 points behind Rousseau’s 534.80. Third was Randal Willars of Mexico in 511.95.
The Chinese pair of Zhu Zifeng was fourth with Zhao Renjie fifth. They had been 1-2 in semifinals, with Rousseau fourth.
“I wasn’t thinking that it can happen,” Sereda said. “Always when I compete somewhere, I’m thinking ‘Okay, I can be third’, because the Chinese are first and second all the time. But today is a different day, and it was unexpected.”
“Honestly, it’s a surprise that there are no Chinese on the podium,” Willars said. “But this is proof that Chinese (divers) can also make mistakes, and they are very good. I have to keep training to keep winning them.”
But Rousseau was hands down the best of the final, delivered the best dive of the first, fifth and sixth rounds. Rousseau scored 90 or more points on three dives, with only 10 of those in the entire competition.
“Well, if you’re not first, you’re last,” Rousseau said. “It definitely feels amazing. From Fukuoka, this is definitely unexpected. I don’t have any words besides wanting to thank everyone that has supported me from home and here. The support staff have been amazing and it’s just been an incredible competition.”
Rousseau was no worse than second at any point in the final. He had the fifth-best dive of the second round. Then followed with 88.20 in the third and 84.60 in the fourth to take over. He finished with a dive of 91.80 in the fifth and 99.90 points on his 109C in the fifth round, the best dive of the competition.
Rousseau won silver on 3-meter mixed synchro in Singapore and has four career Worlds medals.
Photo Courtesy: World Aquatics/Singapore 2025
“Diving has a lot of chops and changes, that’s why I love it,” Rousseau said. “You have to have six of the most consistent dives on the day itself, so if we had to compete tomorrow, it could have been a completely different podium. Thankfully, today, it was me and I was able to hold out for the six dives and become first.”
Sereda was ninth after one round and set fourth after three. He finished with dives of 88.20, 86.40 and 91.80 to take second. Sereda, 19, has medals at four straight World Championships and five total. He won platform bronze in Doha.
“I feel happy,” Sereda said. “I see that I get the silver medal, (it’s the) first in my life. I see progress, and I’m feeling great. It’s a really great feeling when you’re working and you get a result. So I will be working even more to be the first.”
Willars was eighth to start, then finished two the second-best dives of each of the last two rounds. He scored 90 points in the fifth round, then 98.40 in the third to consolidate his bronze. It’s his fifth career medal at Worlds.
“It’s my first time winning a medal in a bigger event, so I’m very happy with this result,” Willars said. “It’s a good step. I want to keep training, keep improving my dive so next time I will win a gold medal.”
Zhu was first after three rounds. But he delivered just the 11th-best dive of the fourth round and eighth-best in the fifth as he finished with 506.10 points. Zhao was in third place through four rounds. He hit the sixth-best dive of each of the last two rounds to slid to fifth in 499.95. China won nine gold medals and 16 total, but nothing in the final day of competition. Zhu had won men’s synchro platform with Cheng Zilong.
