Brandon Loschiavo
Loschiavo 8th in 10-meter final; Duperre/O'Neil 7th in mixed 3-meter synchro at World Championships
Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./West Lafayette, Ind.) finished eighth in the men’s 10-meter final and Noah Duperre (New Albany, Ohio/Austin, Texas) and Bridget O’Neil (Southlake, Texas/Austin, Texas) placed seventh in mixed synchronized 3-meter as diving events wrapped up Saturday at the World Aquatics Championshps in Doha, Qatar.
With Loschiavo advancing to the final, the United States also secured a quota spot to compete in the men’s 10-meter event at the Olympic Games this summer.
Loschiavo finished with 453.35 points in the final. In ninth place heading into the final round, he came through with his best dive of the day, scoring 86.40 points on his back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists to jump to eighth in the standings. He scored 75 points or higher on three other dives in the final.
China won gold and silver, with Yang Hao topping the field at 564.05 and Cao Yuan taking second with 553.20 points. Ukraine’s Oleksii Sereda scored 528.65 for bronze.
In mixed 3-meter synchro competition, Duperre and O’Neil tallied 262.17 points, including 60 or more on both their inward 2 ½ pike and their front 2 ½ with one twist.
Australia’s Maddison Keeney and Domonic Bedggood topped the field with 300.93 points for gold, with silver going to Italy’s Chiara Pellacani and Matteo Santoro at 287.49. Korea’s Kim Suji and Yi Jaegyeong scored 285.03 for bronze.
Saturday marked the conclusion of diving events at the World Aquatics Championships, at which the United States secured two more Olympic quota spots throughout the week. In all, Team USA has now qualified nine out of a possible 12 spots for Paris, with the U.S. qualifying in three of the four synchronized events (men’s and women’s 3-meter synchro and women’s 10-meter synchro). The U.S. also has six of a possible eight individual spots, with two spots in both men’s and women’s 3-meter and one spot apiece in men’s and women’s 10-meter. The U.S. could still pick up additional individual 10-meter spots through reallocation in the coming months.
The focus at the World Aquatics Championships now shifts to high diving events, which will take place February 13-15. Six high divers will represent the United States.