Bacon advances on 3-meter; Hedberg/Tyler 14th in 10m synchro at World Championships

Feb. 8, 2024, 2:49 PM (ET)

Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minneapolis, Minn.) advanced to the women's 3-meter semifinals after finishing third in Thursday’s preliminaries, while Josh Hedberg (Noblesville, Ind.) and Carson Tyler (Moultrie, Ga./Bloomington, Ind.) placed 14th in the men’s synchronized 10-meter final at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Bacon scored 297.45 points in the 3-meter preliminaries, finishing behind only Australia’s Maddison Keeney and China’s Chen Yiwen. Bacon picked up more than 60 points on three of her five dives, including 69 points on a front 2 ½ with one twist and 67.50 points on her inward 2 ½ pike.

Hedberg and Tyler competed together internationally for the first time and scored 324.51 points in the men’s 10-meter synchro contest, highlighted by 75.60 points on their back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists.

China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao dominated the field with 470.76 points for gold, with Tom Daley and Noah Williams of Great Britain scoring 422.37 points for silver. Ukraine’s Kirill Boliukh and Oleksii Sereda picked up bronze at 406.47.

USA’s 14^th-place finish means the U.S. will not qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in men’s 10-meter synchro. Only four countries earn quota spots at the 2024 World Championships, with those spots going to the top four finishers not already qualified for the Olympics. Great Britain, Canada, Australia and Germany secured their spots for Paris in Doha. China, Ukraine, Mexico and France had previously qualified.

The U.S. will still compete in three of the four synchro events in Paris, with Alison Gibson and Krysta Palmer earning a quota spot for the U.S. in women’s 3-meter synchro on Wednesday in Doha. The U.S. qualified in men’s 3-meter synchro and women’s 10-meter synchro at the 2023 World Championships.

Diving events at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships continue through Saturday. Friday’s competition features Bacon in the women’s 3-meter semifinal, with the top 12 then advancing to the finals later in the day. Men’s 10-meter individual competition kicks off with preliminaries on Friday, when Hedberg and Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./West Lafayette, Ind.) will compete with more Olympic quota spots at stake for the United States.