Sarah Bacon
Bacon Finishes 5th in 3-Meter Final; Loschiavo Advances on 10-Meter at World Championships
Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minneapolis, Minn.) finished fifth in the women’s 3-meter final Friday at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Also on Friday, Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./West Lafayette, Ind.) placed 10th in the men’s 10-meter preliminaries to advance to Saturday’s semifinals, while Josh Hedberg (Noblesville, Ind.) finished 19th.
Bacon scored 302.65 points in the 3-meter final. She was in third place after scoring 72 points on her reverse 2 ½ pike in round three, but a miss on her front 3 ½ pike dropped her to seventh. She then closed out her list with 73.50 points on a front 2 ½ with one twist to jump to fifth in the final standings, finishing just 8.6 points shy of a medal.
China took the top two spots, with Chang Yani scoring 354.75 points for gold and Chen Yiwen taking silver at 336.60. Korea’s Kim Suji picked up bronze with 311.25.
Loschiavo finished with 409.00 points for 10th in the men’s 10-meter preliminaries to qualify for the semifinals. He scored 70 points or higher on five of his six dives, including 75.60 on his back 3 ½ pike and 73.60 on his inward 3 ½ tuck. He was in seventh place through four rounds, but a miss on his front 4 ½ tuck dropped him in the standings.
Hedberg just missed a spot in the semifinals by a tenth of a point. He scored 365.75 points, including 75.85 on his front 4 ½ tuck.
With Loschiavo advancing, it keeps the U.S. hopes for a guaranteed Olympic quota spot alive. The top 12 finishers will secure a spot for their countries to compete in the men’s 10-meter event in Paris this summer, with a maximum of two spots per country.
Hedberg’s 19th-place finish could also earn the U.S. a spot later. Per World Aquatics, additional quota places may be obtained by athletes for the NOC but only until the quota in the respective event is filled and the total of 136 divers across all events is not exceeded. These additional quota places will be allocated to athletes placed 13th and higher at the World Championships in Doha until the maximum number of athletes is reached.
Diving events at the World Aquatics Championships wrap up Saturday with men’s 10-meter semifinals and finals as well the mixed synchronized 3-meter finals. Bridget O’Neil (Southlake, Texas/Austin, Texas) and Noah Duperre (New Albany, Ohio/Austin, Texas) will represent the U.S. in that event. High diving events will begin Tuesday.