Hailey Hernandez
Hernandez Sixth, Bacon 11th in Women's 3-Meter Final at World Championships
Hailey Hernandez (Southlake, Texas/University of Texas) finished sixth and Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind./Minnesota Diving) was 11th in the women’s 3-meter final Friday at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Also on Friday, Max Flory (Fairfax, Va./University of Miami) finished 16th in the men’s 10-meter semifinals and Brandon Loschiavo (Huntington Beach, Calif./Purdue Diving) was 23rd in the preliminaries.
Hernandez scored 307.15 points for sixth in the 3-meter final, while Bacon finished at 293.20 for 11th. China took the top two spots, with Chen Yiwen winning gold at 359.50 and Chang Yani scoring 341.50 for silver. Canada’s Pamela Ware took bronze at 332.00.
Hernandez, who was 12th in the Thursday’s semfinals to grab the last spot into the final, was consistent in Friday’s final. She opened the contest with 60.75 points on her inward 2 ½ somersaults tuck and scored 63 points on both her front 3 ½ somersaults tuck and her front 2 ½ somersaults with one twist. Her back 2 ½ somersaults tuck earned 64.60 points.
Bacon missed her opening-round inward 2 ½ somersaults pike but bounced back with 58.50 points or higher on each of her four remaining dives. She finished out her list with 68.20 points on a front 3 ½ somersaults pike and 66 points on a front 2 ½ somersaults with one twist.
In men’s 10-meter action, Flory finished with 382.95 points for 16th in the semifinal. He scored 73.10 points on his reverse 3 ½ somersaults tuck and added 72 points on his back 3 ½ somersaults pike to sit in 12th place with two rounds to go, but some misses on his last two dives – the difficult front 4 ½ somersaults tuck and front 2 ½ somersaults with three twists – dropped him in the standings. Flory also finished 16th in the morning preliminaries.
Loschiavo scored 356.55 points in the 10-meter preliminaries, highlighted by 72.15 on his front 4 ½ somersaults tuck and 63 on his armstand double back somersault with 2 ½ twists.
Team USA wraps up diving competition at the World Championships on Saturday, when Krysta Palmer (Reno, Nev./Nevada Diving) and Jack Ryan (Denver, Colo./Stanford, Calif.) compete in mixed synchronized 3-meter. The event will be shown live on Peacock at 2:30 a.m. ET.