Olympics Diving results, August 12: Women’s 3m springboard begins
By Brad Weiss
The preliminaries for the Women’s 3m springboard competition took place on Friday, as the field was cut from 29 to 18.
The 2016 Rio Olympics Women’s 3m springboard competition kicked off on Friday, as 29 divers took to the board in the preliminary round. Of the 29 who competed, 18 divers advanced to the semifinals, earning a chance to make it to the final round. The top divers in the competition shined on Friday, and will now turn their focus to Saturday.
In the preliminaries, each diver completes five dives, with no limit to the degree of difficulty. Each diver must have all five dives represented, forward, backward, reverse, inward, and twisting. The top 18 scores advance to the semis, where the scores are wiped away and the divers must start over.
On Friday, Canadian diver Jennifer Abel stole the show, posting a score of 373.00. Heading into the event, China had the two favorites in He Zi and Shi Tingmao. The duo earned the gold medal in the synchronized event earlier in the week. China has won every 3m springboard competition at the Olympics since 1988, so Abel will have her work cut out for her the rest of the way.
Zi (367.05), and Tingmao (357.55) had the second and third best scores, respectively, setting themselves up for the semifinal action Saturday.
Tania Cagnotto of Italy had the fourth best score on Friday, as she continues to be one of the best divers in the world. At the 2012 London Olympics, Cagnotto finished fourth in this event, missing the bronze medal by 0.20 points to Mexico’s Laura Sanchez.
Next: 30 Olympic athletes who dominated their events
At the 2012 Olympics, China’s Wu Minixia won the gold medal, with Zi taking the silver. Tingmao is the odds-on favorite to take home the gold in 2016, but with the way Abel dove on Friday, it looks to be anybody’s contest.
American divers Abigail Johnson and Kassidy Cook both qualified for Saturday’s semifinal, finishing sixth and eighth overall.