USA finishes fourth, sixth in synchro events at World Championships
Kassidy Cook (The Woodlands, Texas/Philadelphia Aquatics) and Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minnesota Diving) finished fourth in women’s synchronized 3-meter, and Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./Purdue Diving) and Jordan Rzepka (Solon, Ohio/Purdue Diving) were sixth in men’s synchronized 10-meter Monday at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
The top three teams in each event secured quota spots for their countries for the Olympic Games in Paris. The next opportunity for the United States to qualify in these events will be the World Aquatics Championships next February.
Cook and Bacon narrowly missed the podium with 285.39 points in the 3-meter synchro final, as Italy’s Elena Bertocchi and Chiara Pellacani overtook them by just 0.6 points in the final round to grab the bronze medal and the Olympic qualifying spot. China’s Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen won gold at 341.94, and Great Britain’s Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won silver at 296.58.
Cook and Bacon were third after every round until the very end. They scored 68.40 points on their inward 2 ½ somersaults pike and received 67.89 points on their front 3 ½ somersaults pike to lead Italy by 6.6 points heading into the final round. The Americans finished with just 54.90 points on their front 2 ½ somersaults with one twist to narrowly drop to fourth.
Loschiavo and Rzepka finished with 375.90 points for sixth in the men’s 10-meter synchro final in their first international competition together. They scored 79.68 points on their inward 3 ½ somersaults tuck and received 78.84 points on their back 2 ½ somersaults with 2 ½ twists. They qualified for the final after finishing 10th in the preliminary.
China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao scored 477.75 points for gold, while Ukraine’s Kirill Boliukh and Oleksii Sereda finished with 439.32 to take the silver. Mexico’s Randal Willars and Kevin Berlin won bronze at 434.16.
With the conclusion of the Olympic synchronized events, competition at the World Aquatics Championships now shifts to individual Olympic events. The top 12 finishers in each event will earn their countries a quota spot.
The individual events kick off Tuesday with women’s 10-meter preliminaries and semifinals (9 p.m. ET Monday/1:30 a.m. ET). Delaney Schnell (Tucson, Ariz./University of Arizona), who won bronze in synchronized 10-meter on Sunday, and Nike Agunbiade (Pacifica, Calif./University of Southern California) will represent the United States in the women’s 10-meter event.
Tuesday’s competition also includes the mixed team event final at 5 a.m. ET. Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Johansen Diving Academy), the other half of the bronze-medal-winning 10-meter synchro team, will compete in the team event alongside Rzepka, Krysta Palmer (Reno, Nev./Nevada Diving) and Jack Ryan (Denver, Colo./Stanford Diving). The 10-meter preliminaries and semifinals will be streamed on the World Aquatics Recast channel, and the team event will be shown on Peacock.