China’s Wang/Long win men’s synchro 3m springboard gold at Paris Olympics

PARIS — Chinese divers Wang Zongyuan and Long Daoyi fended off a strong challenge from Mexico”s Juan Celaya Hernandez and Osmar Olvera Ibarra to win the men’s synchronized 3m springboard title at the Paris Olympics on Friday.

Despite two below-par dives, Wang and Long managed to nail their last and most difficult dive to claim the fourth diving gold for China in Paris with a score of 446.1 points.

“I was terrified,” said the 21-year-old Long, who took two world champion titles together with Wang but is making his Olympic debut in Paris. “You could notice my nervousness even in the first two rounds.”

As Long dived awkwardly in the third and fourth rounds, they were overtaken by the Mexican pair temporarily – merely by a slight margin of 0.24 points.

“I just told him there was nothing to be scared of,” said Wang, who won the Olympic champion title in this event in Tokyo three years ago with Xie Siyi.

“It’s the toughest competition for us so far. It’s so tight and I know we were behind the Mexican divers after the fourth round,” said Wang. “I just asked my partner to stop looking at the scoring board and encouraged him to be himself.”

Hernandez and Ibarra were only 2.07 points behind, finishing second. Previously, they only competed together in one international event where they claimed silver at the World Cup Super Final in April.

Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding of Britain, who finished second at the 2022 and 2023 world championships, took the bronze medal in 438.15.

“I’m just so proud of what we’ve done,” said Laugher, who and Chris Mears became Britain’s first diving Olympic champions by winning this event at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

“We’ve had a really rough year. And I think that we’ve worked extremely hard and I’m so proud of where we’ve got to. It was just a wonderfully fun competition. It was all so close and I’m so proud of what we’ve done,” said Laugher.