Maddison Keeney of Australia on Saturday produced a brilliant final dive to beat Nadezhda Bazhina of Russia to the women’s 1m springboard title and make up for past disappointment at the world swimming championships.
Bazhina had taken over the lead from Keeney going into the final round, but the Australian finished with a flourish — nailing a forward two-and-a-half somersaults with one twist — for 314.95 points to beat the Russian by 10.25 and claim her first gold medal.
Nerves got the better of Keeney at the worlds in Kazan, Russia, in 2015, when she flunked her final dive and blew any chance of a podium place, but there was no such embarrassment this time.
Photo: EPA
“I wanted to redeem myself. I didn’t need to doubt myself. I didn’t need to think about what happened in the past because I knew that all the training, all the hard work I’d done, would pay off,” Keeney said.
She called her parents afterward, fighting back tears.
European champion Elena Bertocchi of Italy won bronze with 296.40, ahead of China’s Chen Yiwen and Russia’s Maria Polyakova.
Photo: EPA
China failed to make the podium in women’s 1m springboard at the worlds for the first time since 2003.
Ilia Zakharov and Evgenii Kuznetsov of Russia claimed the men’s 3m springboard synchronized diving title with a fine forward four-and-a-half somersaults tuck to snatch the win from Xie Siyi and Cao Yuan of China.
The Russian pair finished with 450.30 points, 6.9 ahead of Xie and Cao, who had been leading from the start.
China, which had won the event at eight of the last nine worlds, missed out on gold for the first time since 2003.
Oleg Kolodiy and Illya Kvasha of Ukraine claimed bronze on 429.99, while Olympic champions Jack Laugher and Chris Mears of Britain missed out by finishing fourth.
Earlier, Ren Qian and Lian Junjie won the mixed 10-meter synchronized diving title for China’s first gold of the worlds.
Ren and Lian, who won all four meets at the Diving World Series this season, produced a near flawless performance to rank first after each of the five dives for a total of 352.98.
The 16-year-old Lian became the first man born after Jan. 1, 2000 to win a diving medal at the worlds.
Britain’s Matthew Lee and Lois Toulson took silver with 323.28.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS