World Championships: Chen Yiwen, Chen Jia Go 1-2 in 3-Meter Springboard
China’s Chen Yiwen and Chen Jia went 1-2 on women’s 3-meter springboard on the penultimate day of diving at the World Aquatics Championships.
Chen Yiwen bested her countrywoman with a score of 389.70 points, winning by 33.30 points. Italian Chiara Pellacani jumped into bronze position in the final round, her seventh career medal at Worlds in a dramatic final dive that left six divers clustered within 14 points.
Chen and Chen won 3-meter women’s synchro gold. Chen Yiwen added mixed team gold, the 26-year-old the owner of 10 career medals at Worlds, nine of them gold.
Chen Jia led after the first two rounds with Chen Yiwen second. The latter went ahead in the third round by less than a point, scoring 76.50 points on the third round. She blistered the field with dives of 83.70 and 81.00 on the final two rounds to widen the gap to Chen Jia to 33.30 points and leave no doubt.
“Today is like seeing the result of all the training I’ve done,” Chen Yiwen said. “Actually, to execute my dives so well today is a bit of a surprise, because I’ve been a bit tired the last two days and my training since I arrived here hasn’t been ideal.”
Chen Jia scored 356.40 points. She was never lower than second and only once delivered a dive that was lower than a tie for fourth in the field.
“Overall, I think my performance has been average,” Chen Jia said. “But on the whole, I’m satisfied because this is my first time competing in such a big event. I’ll have to learn from this experience and reflect on the lessons learnt.”
The medals give China gold in nine of 12 events, with one to come. They have 16 total medals out of 36.
“I just focus on myself,” Chen Yiwen said of the pressure. “To be honest, it’s quite hard to not focus on external influences. But throughout a competition, you just need to try your best to think of how to pull your focus back onto yourself, and during dives it’s best to not overthink about any other things.”
The battle for bronze was a ripper. After one round, Germany’s Lena Hentschel and Switzerland’s Michelle Heimberg were tied for it. Sayaka Mikami of Japan leapt into it in the second and third rounds. In the fourth, Maddison Keeney of Australia took over third, her 107B notching 74.40 points, second only to Chen Yiwen in the round.
That set up basically a winner-take-bronze fifth and final round. Mikami had bowed out by that point, with the 11th-best dive of the fourth round to slide her to sixth. Heimberg was distant in eighth. Hentschel had dropped to seventh, but a dive of 63.00 put her close. Pellacani had been in fourth from the second round on. She delivered no better than the sixth-best dive of any of the last three rounds, but she was at least consistently over 60 points in each. So when she scored 61.50 on the final dive, she put the pressure on.
Keeney stumbled, her 5154B netting just 44.20 points and plummeting her from third to sixth.
That left Pellacani with 323.20 points, 1.6 ahead of Hentschel’s 321.60. Mikami was fifth in 302.15, with Keeney 10 points back.
“I usually start off slow in the first round, but I think the most important thing is to stay consistent,” Pellacani said. “That’s what I did during prelims, semifinals and finals. I’m really happy that I managed to pull through, and I’m satisfied with the result.”
Pellacani, who trained at LSU in the United States, won bronze on both springboards plus 3-meter mixed synchro gold.
