Tania Cagnotto Ends China’s World Title Diving Sweep at 2015 FINA World Championships

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Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

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Tania Cagnotto finally won the world gold which had eluded her for so long when she scored a superb victory on the 1m springboard which ended China’s monopoly of the diving titles in Kazan. The 30-year-old Italian, who claimed her first FINA World Championship medal 10 years ago, took charge from the start and held off the Chinese challenge through the five rounds of the final to relegate former 1m world champions Shi Tingmao and He Zi to silver and bronze after China had bagged the first five titles of the meet.

Cagnotto, three silver and four bronze medals already in her collection from five previous editions of the FINA World Championships, was pipped for gold by a tiny 0.10 points – the smallest margin in the history of the championships – by He Zi at the last Worlds in 2013 after having led through three of the five rounds. But this time she was not to be denied her rule at the Aquatics Palace as she claimed Italy’s first World Championship diving gold in 40 years since Klaus Dibiasi won the men’s 10m title at the first two editions in 1973 and 1975.

Leading by over 10 points going into the final round, she was able to resist a storming last challenge from 2011 world 1m champion Shi. Shi, already a gold medallist in Kazan in the 3m synchro with Olympic champion Wu Minxia, reduced the gap to less than two points with the last dive of the final but it was not enough to beat Cagnotto, who was tearfully hugged in joyous embrace by the Italian entourage.

The Chinese pair fell short of their best but Cagnotto kept cool and was very much worth her win. She amassed 310.85 points, with Shi taking the silver with 309.20 and defending champion He, out of the top three till round four, the bronze with 300.30, well clear of fourth-placed Olena Fedorova of Ukraine (286.95).

QUOTES

Tania Cagnotto (ITA, gold): “I am really happy about the gold medal. I did not expect to win before the competition. The Chinese girls are always good and they are my idols. The feeling of beating them is so enjoyable. It is a perfect competition today. My dream came true!”

“It is the first world champion in 40 years for Italy. It is unbelievable! These are my eighth World Championships, I had only silver and bronze medals all those years. I can finish my career in a better way now as a world champion. It is maybe my last World Championships”.

“I remember the competition in 2013, when I missed the title by 0.10 points. I prepared good but got a silver there, so I was scared to repeat that feat again here in Kazan. I made my big bang at last!”

Shi Tingmao (CHN, silver): “My second dive was not perfect but I managed to come back in the last. I want to congratulate Tania. She did very well today. We will continue to vie for the gold in the 3m springboard. It is the competition that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. If you want to win, you need to learn from the failure”.

He Zi (CHN, bronze): “I learned a lot from Tania. Congratulations to her! I respect her very much!”

Double Olympic champion Qin Kai clinched a unique fifth successive men’s 3m synchro springboard gold, sharing victory with Cao Yuan to give China their sixth title of the FINA World Championships after one had escaped their grasp a few hours earlier.

Qin and Cao denied the home Russian crowd the win they had hoped for after Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Zakharov upstaged the Chinese pair in the morning’s preliminary round and seized the lead in the opening round of the six-dive final. But in the end China held sway in a fluctuating final, taking the lead in the second round, conceding it to the Russians in the third but then taking control in the fourth to win eventually by just over 12 points.

Zakharov had toppled the Chinese to win the Olympic 3m individual crown in 2012 and China’s air of supremacy in Kazan had been blown away not long earlier in the Aquatics Palace when Italy’s Tania Cagnotto relegated China to silver and bronze in the women’s 1m springboard final.

But the Russian pair were consigned to 3m synchro silver behind 29-year-old Qin for the third World Championships in succession, their duel decided in the final round in a battle on the toughest dive on show, the forward 4-1/2 somersaults (109C) with a 3.8 degree of difficulty on the 3m board. Qin and Cao won with 471.45 points, with Kuznetsov and Zakharov second on 459.18 and Great Britain’s Jack Laugher and Chris Mears collecting bronze on 445.20, proving the most consistent of the challengers in a final in which no pair was error-free.

Kuznetsov and Zakharov had gained the psychological advantage in the qualifying round, soundly outscoring the Chinese on the 109C to vault to the front for the final. But it was a different story in the final when Qin and Cao, already around nine points ahead, nailed their 109C, earning a score of 96.90 which left the Russians with a monumental task with the last dive of encounter. The Russians could not match the Chinese, falling around 3-1/2 points short on the dive and 12.27 overall.

Cao, Qin’s fourth different springboard partner in his five world championship triumphs, was previously a 10m specialist, winning Olympic gold in the 10m synchro in 2012 before suffering defeat on the tower at the 2013 Worlds, where he and Zhang Yanquan were relegated to bronze. Qin, twice Olympic champion in the 3m synchro, now has six world golds, having been individual 3m world champion in 2007, the year of the first of his five 3m synchro titles.

For Kuznetsov and Zakharov, it was silver again in Qin’s wake as it had been at the 2011 and 2013 Worlds and 2012 Olympics. They had been seeking to emulate fellow Russians Alexander Dobroskok and Dmitry Sautin, the only non-Chinese duo to win the event at the Worlds when they prevailed in 2003, but they could not prevent the Chinese from making it eight wins in nine editions.

Japan’s Ken Terauchi, world 3m bronze medallist back in 2001, showed he could still dive with the best 10 days short of his 35th birthday. Terauchi and Sho Sakai made the final, finishing 11th.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World. To reach our audience, contact us at newsmaster@swimmingworld.com.

2015 FINA World Championships, Diving: Day 5 Results – Results

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