FINA diving World series 2018 to wrap up in Kazan
The round in Tatarstan’s capital city highlights the FINA Diving World Series. Over 50 athletes came to Kazan from 12 countries to compete for the medals of the concluding leg of the tournament. The finals in the women’s and mixed synchro 3m springboard, and men’s 10m events were held on the last competition day.
The evening session of Day 3 began with the women’s battle. Team China dominated in the final as well as throughout the Kazan series. The Chinese bagged gold and silver with no one close to challenge them. The gold medal for 374.35 points went to Shi Tingmao. The silver medal was claimed by her teammate Wang Han (355.01). The other four athletes dived for the bronze medal. It was Canada’s Jennifer Abel who got it right. 338.55 points for five dives helped the Canadian to remain unattainable for the opponents.
The Chinese diver Jian Yang followed into the footsteps of his female teammates. Inspired by the girls’ success, the athlete of Team China did not leave room for the other contenders to impose tough competition on the 10m. From the very first dive the Chinese was far ahead, who nobody could keep pace with. The fantastic score (581.60 points) helped the athlete to clinch gold. Second was Russia’s Alexander Bondar. He performed his dives properly, but still lost more than 30 points to Jian. This was a second award for Bondar here in Kazan in addition to the gold medal in the synchro pairing with Viktor Minibaev. Benjamin Auffret of Team France became a third-place finisher, who needed a minuscule 0.2 points to reach 500 points. Russian Nikita Shleikher lost to the French by more than 10 points and missed the podium.
Day 3 of the competitions wrapped the Kazan round of the FINA Diving World Series with the mixed synchronised 3m springboard event. Only five mixed duets participated in this discipline. It was likely for the first time when all the medals would be taken to Europe. Jennifer Abel / Francois Imbeau-Dulac topped the line-up with 324.96. The silver medal was earned by the British pair Grace Reid / Tom Daley (317.70). The German duet Tina Punzel / Lou Massenberg reached the podium with 306 points. Team Russia, on the contrary, missed it, as Nikita Shleikher and Nadezhda Bazhina came three points short.