Aussies go from first to last with botched dive
GOLD COAST – Agence France-Presse
Esther Qin and Georgia Sheehan snatched women’s 3m synchro springboard gold after a rival Aussie pair crashed from first place to last with a disastrous final dive at the Commonwealth Games on April 11.
Qin and Sheehan jumped from fourth to the top of the standings with their inward 2-1/2 somersaults last dive to clinch the gold with a total of 284.10 points.
England’s Alicia Blagg and Katherine Torrance took silver with 276.90 points, with Malaysia’s Mun Yee Leong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri getting the bronze with 264.90 points.
The competition, beset by windy conditions and technical difficulties in the outdoor pool, turned dramatically in the fifth and final round.
Australia’s Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith were leading but bombed out of contention with a botched forward 2-1/2 somersaults
with two twists dive which earned them no points and left them in seventh and last position.
Chinese-born Glasgow Games springboard champion Qin and Sheehan seized their opportunity with a 71.10 scoring final dive to zoom to the top of the standings.
“Everyone’s in the same boat, everyone’s diving in the same conditions, it’s just who can deal with them the best -- which today happened to be us, which is really exciting,” Sheehan said.
“But our team managers had us prepped so well and getting us to use that home advantage to get the gold today.”
A teary Keeney, who lost control of her dive and landed awkwardly, ending her team’s medal chances, put on a brave face afterwards.
“It was all over the shop for everyone with all the delays and technical stuff going on which was stress we didn’t need,” said Keeney, the world 1m springboard champion.
“It was an interesting day for everyone, obviously I don’t think anyone can say they dived well, but we’ve come out the other end. It was a tough day.”
