Diving, Men's 3m Final - Cao makes it five Olympic titles out of six in Rio

Cao Yuan, an Olympic champion on the platform in 2012, proved himself king of the springboard four years on when he won the 3m title in a superlative display which hoisted China’s tally to five titles out of six at Rio’s Maria Lenk pool on Tuesday.

Cao, 10m synchro gold medallist at the London Games, led throughout the final to prevail in a duel with Great Britain’s Jack Laugher, who had denied him gold in last week’s 3m synchro event, the only title to elude China so far, with just two events still to come.

Cao, who had led the way in both the preliminary round and the semi-final, maintained a serene consistency while others crumbled in a contest in which defending Olympic champion Ilya Zakharov and reigning world champion He Chao failed to make the final, He Chao not even reaching the semi-final.

Laugher, gold in the 3m synchro already in his possession, turned near-disaster into a second Olympic medal to claim the silver, with German veteran Patrick Hausding, like Cao previously better known for his platform successes, taking the bronze. Laugher had only just scraped into the final as the 12th and last qualifier from the morning’s semi-final, which decreed that he dived first in the evening final.

He had said before the final that this was “absolutely brilliant” because it meant he could put pressure on the others and he remained true to his word. He dived so well that he knew when he had completed his last dive, with every other finalist still to dive again, that he could get nothing less than the silver medal and, depending on Cao, maybe gold. Patrick Hausding claimed bronze ahead of European champion Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia.

Laugher, world bronze and European silver medallist on the 3m board, had upstaged the Chinese once already when he and Chris Mears spun to victory in the 3m synchro, consigning Cao and Qin Kai to bronze. But a second such feat proved just beyond him. Laugher nailed three big-scoring 90+ scores, including a soaring forward 4-1/2 somersaults (109C) in the fifth round worth 96.90 points which enabled him to reduce a 25.25 gap Cao had opened up after the 21-year-old Briton’s less successful effort in the fourth. Cao could still not afford any error when he lined up for the final dive of the competition but he held his nerve, as he had throughout, claiming the biggest score of the round – 96.90 for his own forward 4-1/2, his fourth and highest 90+ effort of the final.

Cao, with former Olympic champion Greg Louganis watching in the crowd, proved a worthy successor to the great American, claiming gold with 547.60 points from his six final dives, four of which earned at least 90 points apiece. Laugher took silver on 523.85 and Hausding, who achieved the highest score of the final with 98.80 for his own forward 4-1/2 in the fifth round, bronze on 498.90.

Hausding had previously bagged Olympic silver at the 2008 Beijing Games with Sascha Klein in the 10m synchro. The pair were 10m synchro world champions in 2013, defeating Olympic champions Cao and Zhang Yanquan.

There was no Rio joy for defending champion Zakharov. The 25-year-old Russian had broken a string of four consecutive Chinese Olympic 3m victories when he toppled He Chao’s elder brother He Chong as champion at the London Games. But gold in London turned to dust in Rio, where all the confidence and bounce of 2012 seemed to have drained away in a succession of flawed dives over the two days of competition.

Zakharov had squeezed into the semi-final as the last qualifier but squandered his reprieve, finishing bottom of the pile after registering zero points for a failed dive in which he landed in the water in a crumpled heap, injuring himself in the execution, his confidence left in tatters. Zakharov said afterwards the board had hit him on the rebound after he took off.

“I was flying over the springboard and the springboard was flying in the other direction at me,” he said.

“I didn’t make it work for me, so we clashed. There was a very strong strain and my legs just could not stand the pressure and they gave out. Unfortunately I injured my knee a little bit. I tried at least to finish with some score but I didn’t have the height, the dynamics, nothing, so I had to hit the water. I didn’t work to my full capacity after that. The leg was hurting a bit and I felt like I carry the dives through to the end like I knew I could. Of course, I was also having a fair psychological breakdown at this point.”

He Chao, world champion ahead of Zakharov’s silver in 2015, did not even make it beyond Monday’s preliminary round in which gusty winds made diving difficult.

QUOTES
Cao Yuan (CHN), gold, men’s 3m

“I did feel the pressure. When you are in a competition, there a lot of things happening, so in our training we also prepare ourselves for any unexpected circumstance. In the final, I decided to let it go and it paid off.”

Transition from 10m to 3m: “From London now, I am more experienced physically and mentally. Evolving from 10m to 3m, it was a natural progression, I catch up very fast the technical aspects of the springboard.”

“In February this year, I wasn’t very prepared. A lot of difficulties occurred in the beginning of the year, and I could not focus on my performances. Then, we tried to better prepare for this competition and we tried to simulate as much as possible the conditions here in Rio. I definitively enjoyed today’s competition.”

Jack Laugher (GBR), silver, men’s 3m

"I always knew that I could medal at these Olympic Games. My performance has been on the up since 2013. I've just been rising each year. Doing it is a completely different story. So many nerves, so much pressure, so many different weather conditions around the Olympics, it's really hard to get on the board and actually do that, and I showed that in the semis when I almost didn't make the final. I came out here, and I did my best, and it paid off with a truly fantastic performance."

On winning gold in the synchronised 3m springboard and then having to focus on the individual competition: "It's really hard to reset. That is the pinnacle of my entire career, so far. Olympic gold is something to cherish for an entire lifetime. It was really hard coming off that. I felt like I was on top of a mountain, and then I had to drop back down, go to training at six in the morning. It was really difficult getting back on the board. I really focused well, and I did have some struggles along the way, but I still medalled at the end of the day."

On whether qualifying last for the finals helped to take the pressure off of him: "My coach definitely tried to turn the situation around and make me feel good about my performance. He told me I can be applying pressure to the field, which I think I did. Applying pressure to the field is something I like to do, it shows everyone that you're in shape. To actually make the final was lucky, and I gave it my all."

On how his life might change after the 2016 Olympic Games: "I don't know actually. While I'm here, I'm kind of in a weird Olympic bubble where you don't fully realise how big of an achievement it is to come away with a gold and a silver. I know that everyone is so proud of me back home, but at the end of the day, I'm just a normal kid from Yorkshire. I'm just enjoying what I'm doing. This is my job, and I love doing it every single day. Nothing is going to change on my end really."

Patrick Hausding (GBR), bronze, men’s 3m

“This is a great motivation – second medal in the Olympics (after Beijing 2008), the first individual one. After two fourth places in the past, it’s the only thing I could ask for.”