Diving Australia News

26/7/15

Australia has won two bronze medals overnight in the diving at the FINA World Aquatic Championships in Kazan, and have also qualified their women’s 3-metre synchro team for the Rio Olympics.

Samantha Mills and Esther Qin continued their strong form in 2015 to finish third behind China and Canada in the synchro final, with the top three teams automatically qualifying for the 2016 Olympics.

And two days after diving together for the first time, Australia’s Melissa Wu and Domonic Bedggood won bronze in the mixed platform synchro, although the result has no impact on the Olympics as mixed synchro is not on the programme.

Mills and Qin started strongly in their final, sitting in the silver medal position after the first three dives.

But a low score on their penultimate dive slipped the Australians back to fourth, before a big final dive lifted them back into the bronze medal position.

After a tentative start, Wu and Bedggood finished strongly to grab third behind China and Canada in the first ever World Championship mixed synchro event.

After two dives the Australians were back in equal eighth, but moved to the bronze medal position with just one dive to go.

“We had our first session two days ago, so this was our second session,” Bedggood said.

“When we saw our coaches after two dives, they told us this is where the competition begins. We knew our optionals were our strongest dives, so we just had to get those right.

“We were just going out there to have fun, and get the nerves out of the way, given it was our first competition dive and my first World Championships.”

Their final score was less than two points behind Canada, who leapfrogged from fourth on the final dive.

“The Canadians did the whole World Series together, they train in the same city, so we’re pretty happy to finish with bronze,” Bedggood said.

Bedggood is based on the Gold Coast and Wu, who posted pictures on social media this week showing her and Bedggood’s first ever dives together, trains in Sydney.

The mixed events are not included on the Olympics program.

“It’s great to start off the campaign with a medal, but now it’s time to focus on the Olympic events and try and do just as well in those,” Bedggood, who will contest the individual platform and the men’s synchro later this week, said.

Australian Olympic Committee News

24/7/15

'Divers Ready To Make A Splash in Kazan'

http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news/divers-ready-to-make-a-splash-in-kazan

Australia's rising star James Connor isn't fazed by an unforgiving world diving championships schedule as he aims to convert domestic domination to international success.

A self-confessed jack of all trades, the 20-year-old Victorian is contesting all four of the events he won at the Australian championships at the world titles which get underway in Kazan, Russia on Saturday.

Connor will dive with Matthew Mitcham's Commonwealth Games gold medal partner Domonic Bedggood in the platform synchro and team up with Grant Nel - also a partner of the absent Mitcham - in the 3m synchro.

He'll also compete in the individual platform and 3m springboard, the latter in which he beat both Olympic gold medallist Mitcham and Commonwealth Games medallist Nel by a margin of more than 25 points at the national championships in May.

Expectations for him are high on debut at the world championships, but Connor says he isn't worried about shouldering the busiest workload of the entire Australian team as they aim to book Rio Olympics spots for their country.

"After the (London) Olympics I went through a bit of a phase of what's right for me, what should I be doing," he said.

"A coach once said to me, why would I limit my chances of making the Australian team? I'm enjoying being a jack of all trades and trying my hand at everything.

"As far as which of these events I would like to contest if I'm lucky enough to qualify for Rio, that's a call we'll make closer to the event."

One of Australia's best chances for a medal in Kazan will come on day two, when Samantha Mills and Esther Qin contest the 3m synchro.

Mills and Qin have won three silver medals at World Series level since coming together as a synchro team 12 months ago.

"I think we'll go in their pretty confident, knowing we've beaten most of the best teams in the world," Mills said.

"We're feeling more relaxed and less nervous with every competition."

Maddison Keeney is a strong medal prospect in the springboard events, while team captain and Olympic silver medallist Melissa Wu will supplement her synchro and individual platform campaigns by teaming up with Bedggood in a new inclusion, the mixed platform synchro.

Synchronised teams need to finish top three to qualify for next year's Rio Olympics, while the top 12 in the 3m and platform individual events will book places for their country at the Olympics.

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