News

SILVER FOR BEDGGOOD ON FINAL DAY OF GOLD COAST GRAND PRIX

Published Sun 12 Nov 2017

 

Australia’s Domonic Bedggood has won a silver medal in the men’s platform final on the final day of competition at the FINA Diving Grand Prix on the Gold Coast.

 

But Australia’s two women’s springboard synchro teams both missed chances for a medal when they each recorded a no-dive during their final.

 

Gold Coast’s Bedggood was involved in a tight tussle with Chinese world championship bronze medallist Jian Tang throughout the platform final, but a slight miss for the Australian on his third dive proved to be the difference.

 

Bedggood showed he will be a strong chance to win a second Commonwealth Games medal next year when he finished on 448.90, behind Yang on 466.20.

 

Russian Olympian Nikita Shielkher finished third on 444.55, while Australia’s Matthew Barnard was fourth.

 

In the women’s synchro springboard, both the Australian combinations of Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith, and Esther Qin and Georgia Sheehan, were looking in contention for the gold medal before posting no-dives late in the competition.

 

Keeney and Smith, bronze medallists at last year’s Rio Olympics, needed less than 40 points from their final dive to overhaul USA’s Krysta Palmer and Maria Coburn for the gold, but a mistake left the pair with no score and relegated them to fourth place overall.

 

One round earlier a mistake also left Qin and Sheehan without a score, with the pair eventually finishing fifth.

 

Palmer and Coburn took the gold with 261.00 points, ahead of Germany’s Tina Punzel and Lena Hentschel (242.70), with Japan’s Sayaka Mikami and Hazuki Miyamoto taking bronze with 235.80.

 

In the women’s individual springboard final China took the gold and the bronze, with Yiwen Chen finishing with 297.75 points.

 

USA’s Maria Coburn picked up a second medal for the day, posting a score of 280.80 to win the silver, while China’s Xiaohui Huang won bronze with 278.50.

 

Russia’s Nikita Shielkher also picked up two medals on the final day, winning gold alongside Aleksandr Belevtsev in the men’s platform synchro.

 

They ended on 390.84, ahead of Great Britain’s James Heatly and Lucas Thomson on 341.70, with Malaysia’s Hanis Nazirui Jaya Surya and Jellson Jabillin third on 334.62.

 

Australia’s Matthew Barnard and Ross Todd finished fourth.

 

The final gold medal of the competition, the mixed synchro, went to Germany’s Martin Wolfram and Tina Punzel (276.78), ahead of Russia’s Nadezhda Bazhina and Shielkher, his third medal for the day, with Malaysia’s Nurdhabitah Sabri and Gabriel Gilbert Daim third.