8 New Olympic Qualifying Slots Awarded on Day 1 of FINA Diving World Cup-Tokyo

2021 FINA Diving World Cup – Tokyo

• May 1-6, 2021
• Tokyo Aquatics Center, Tokyo, Japan
• Final Olympic Qualifying Event
• Results

16 new Olympic tickets were stamped on Saturday on the opening day of the FINA Diving World Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

In both the men’s 10-meter platform synchronized diving event and the women’s 3-meter synchronized diving event, there were 4 new Olympic qualifying spots up for grabs. Qualifying spots are awarded to nations, not necessarily athletes.

In each synchro event, the top 3 from last summer’s World Championships, plus the automatic qualifiers from the host country Japan, are already qualified. The 4 best finishing teams this week who were not already qualified earn their spot as well to make up an 8 team field for this summer’s Olympic Games.

The women’s 3-meter event was won by China’s Yani Chang and Yiwen Chen, finishing a dominating 28 points ahead of the field. China was already qualified for the Olympics in this event via their World Championship in 2019, though that event’s winners Shi Tingmao and Wang Han didn’t dive on Saturday.

China is the only country that maxed out its 12 quota spots at the World Championships.

Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini Beaulieu finished 2nd, but Canada too is already qualified.

That left the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th place teams with new Olympic spots in the event.

Women’s 3-Meter New Qualifiers (Names of divers who competed on Saturday, not necessarily who countries will swim):

• Italy (3rd) – Chiara Pellacani/Elena Bertocchi
• Germany (4th) – Tina Punzel/Lena Hentschel
• United States (5th) – Sarah Bacon/Kassidy Cook
• Great Britain (6th) – Katherine Torrance/Grace Reid

Previous Qualifiers:

• China
• Canada
• Mexico
• Japan

There were a few surprising results in that event. In what was a very-tight spread from 3rd through 8th, the Russian pair of Kristina Ilinykh and Mariia Poliakova, who were 4th at the World Championships and missed medaling by just 2 points, are out of the Olympics.

Mexico’s Paola Espinosa Sanchez and Melany Hernandez Torres finished just 9th on Saturday, though they’re already qualified as the World Championships bronze medalists.

Meanwhile, in the men’s 10-meter, it was British pair Tom Daley and Matthew Lee who dominated the field, scoring a monstrous 453.60 to win by almost 50 points.

That pair finished 3rd at the 2019 World Championships, but without China and with another Russian pair, the defending silver medalists, struggling, the Brits were able to dominate the event.

Men’s 10-Meter Synchronized Diving Qualifiers (Qualifications to countries, not athletes):

• Mexico (2nd) – Randal Willars Valdez/Ivan Garcia Navarro
• Canada (3rd) – Vincent Riendeau/Nathan Zsombor-Murray
• Ukraine (4th) – Olesii Sereda/Oleh Serbin
• South Korea (5th) – Yeongnam Kim/Haram Woo

The German pair of Patrick Hausding and Timo Barthel finished 6th, missing Olympic qualification by just 1.29 points. For Korea, who finished a place ahead, this is just their 3rd Olympic quota spot for Tokyo.

The American pair of David Dinsmore and NCAA individual platform champion Brandon Loschiavo finished 8th. That means, barring two qualified nations withdrawing, the Americans won’t compete at this event at the Olympics.

Previous Qualifiers:

• China
• Great Britain
• Russia
• Japan