Cao of China qualifies for the finals of the men’s 10m platform diving event at the Olympics.
Men’s 10M Platform Diving Olympics 2021
On Saturday, Cao Yuan, a diver from China, qualified for the finals of the men’s 10 metre platform diving event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
He will be attempting to win a seventh gold medal for China in the diving competition.
Cao, who had previously won gold in both the 10m synchronised and 3m individual events in London and Rio, respectively, had a poor start in the semi-finals in Tokyo, ending in sixth place after the first round.
But he bounced back with a vengeance, scoring the highest of the round (91.80 points) on his third dive to claim first place.
He scored 513.70, which was 32.85 more than his closest competitor, Yang Jian of China.
Cao, who is only 26 years old, has an excellent chance of becoming the first athlete to win gold medals in three separate diving events at the Olympics.
“I feel like I was able to perform like I normally would in everyday practises,” he remarked.
He continued, “I have to be confident, but I cannot have too high expectations,” and said that as long as he played to his regular standards in the finals, he would be OK.
Tom Daley of Great Britain, who won the 10m synchronised gold early last week, placed fourth, with Aleksandr Bondar of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) in third with 464.10 points.
Teenage Japanese competitor Rikuto Tamai, who came in eighth place after qualifying among the top 12, also made it into the top 12.
Conclusion
Woo Haram of South Korea, who placed fourth in the 3m springboard in Tokyo, was eliminated in the 16th position due to his inability to find his rhythm and eventually dropped out of competition.
Saturday evening will be the championship match.