Great Britain took the first gold medal of the 2024 Diving World Cup in Berlin on Friday. Germany and Italy went 2-3 behind the world champions in the mixed team event.
Great Britain led after each round of the mixed team event on Friday to win the first gold medal of the Berlin World Cup, with 461.15 points. Four-time Olympian Tom Daley contributed the highest score of the night, adding 91.80 points for his reverse 3½ on the 10m platform.
Germany took silver with 430.75 points.
Italy placed third – 11.15 points behind the host nation.
The surprise of the day was Australia, which placed sixth of seven teams despite taking bronze at the 2024 World Championships and bronze at the World Cup in Montreal. The 2023 individual world champion on 10m, Cassiel Rousseau, was a late scratch, replaced by 17-year-old Jaxson Bowshire.
In the end, Great Britain prevailed despite swapping out their male team members from event to event. In Doha, where it won gold, Daniel Goodfellow flew in just to make the 3m, and it was his only dive at the World Championships. In Montreal, Anthony Harding dove on 3m to help the team take silver. On Friday, Jack Laugher was on springboard.
Laugher explained,
“For us as a team, it’s actually really easy to chop and change. We’ve got a lot of depth all over, men and women, platform and 3m.”
Daley added that the mixed team event is “very tactical… because there’s lots of different ways you can mix-and-match everyone.” In Berlin, Daley did triple duty for Team GB (performing two synchro dives and one solo on 10m), just as he had in Montreal and in Doha. “For us, it’s about trying to maximise the weaker categories, which tend to be back and reverse, so Jack did a very solid back 3½ dive in that first round, and I think that really helped set the standard. Everyone else was really solid and held it together.”
As for Germany, Moritz Wesemann, 21, attributed the silver medal to strong performances by his teammates. “Everyone showed one of their best possible dives off springboard as well as platform,” said the squad’s 3m man. “Compared to other mixed team events," Wesemann added, “it was very competitive, so we are all very happy.”
Timo Barthel, 27, added, “to be home here in Berlin, to dive in front of the crowd… gives us a little bit more motivation.” (Barthel was Germany’s top scorer, earning 87.45 points for his back 3½ on 10m).
Bronze medalist Andreas Larsen, 24, attributed Italy’s success on Friday to the team’s vibe. “We have a really good connection between us,” he said. “We see this as a fun competition where we don’t necessarily put too much pressure on each other. If it goes good we are happy, and if we don’t do good we are always happy.”
Also, Larsen said, “Today, I think we felt better physically than in Montreal coming straight after the Worlds.”
Next: Action resumes on Saturday with two synchro finals. First, 11 pairs of divers will contest men’s synchro springboard (but none from China, the 12-time world champion), followed by women’s platform which will feature five pairs (yet none from 13-time world champion China). Next, two-time world champion Chen Yiwen of China will headline the women’s individual 3m final and Lian Junjie and Cassiel Rousseau will be the ones to watch in men’s 10m.