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AUSSIE DIVERS SET TO TAKE ON THE COMMONWEALTH

Published Tue 02 Aug 2022

The Australian Diving Team is set to take on their closest rivals this week as they compete at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

The Team comes off a string of recent successes at the Australian Open Championships, Calgary’s Canada Cup, and the 2022 FINA Diving World Championships.

At the last Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast 2018, Australia picked up 11 medals in diving events. The 11 medals were enough to top the medal table ahead of England (8) and Canada (6).

Diving events will run for five days beginning on Thursday, 4 July at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre. Australians at home can following the events live and exclusive on 7sport and 7plus.

Commonwealth Debutants to Shine

Seven divers make their Commonwealth games debut in Birmingham including the youngest member of the 433 strong Australian Team.

Charli Petrov is set to make waves in the Women’s 10-Metre Synchro event alongside Australian diving royalty Melissa Wu. In the same event two other debutants, Emily Boyd and Nikita Hains partner up in their first major event as a pairing.

Tasmanian Emily Meaney makes her debut in the in the Women’s 10-Metre with Sam Fricker and 3-Metre Synchro partner Shixin Li both competing for the first time in Commonwealth competition.

Fresh off his fourth-place finish at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, rising star Cassiel Rousseau debuts in the Men’s 10-Metre Individual and Synchro.

Experience and Composure

Melissa Wu makes history in Birmingham becoming the first Australian diver to compete at five Commonwealth Games, and one of only four divers in history from any nation to achieve the feat.

Alongside Melissa, a cohort of Gold Coast 2018 Gold Medallists in Domonic Bedggood, Georgia Sheehan, and Esther Qin will look to recapture their success from the previous Games.

Brittany O’Brien returns to Commonwealth competition however this time as a springboard athlete in the same event as World Champion Maddison Keeney in her third Games.

Springboard specialist Anabelle Smith joins the exclusive four-Games club when she partners with Bedggood and Keeney in the Mixed and Women’s 3-Metre Synchro events respectively.

The divers will be supported by a team of national coaches, Ady Hinchcliffe, Andy Banks, Chava Sobrino, and Mathew Helm, and led by team manager Steve Foley, himself a Commonwealth Games medallist.

Competitors to Watch

Australia will face tough competition in the diving pool perennial powerhouses England and Canada with Scottish and Malaysian divers shooting for the podium.

At the June’s World Championships, English athletes competing for Great Britain picked up an impressive medal haul who along with a Scottish duo Grace Reid and James Heatly rocketed Team GB to second on the medal table.

England’s Jack Laugher, one of the Commonwealth’s most success divers in history, will look to add to his five Commonwealth Games Gold Medal collection. At the previous Games, Laugher won every event he competed in.

Springboard specialist Mia Vallée of Canada has had a recent run of success including two individual medals at the recent World Championships and will be gunning for the podium on her debut Commonwealth Games.

Other divers in strong form include Commonwealth Games Medallists Pandelela Rinong of Malaysia, and England’s Noah Williams and Matty Lee.

Competition Format

Divers will compete in 12 events at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games with disciplines ranging from the 1-Metre Springboard to the 10-Metre Platform.

For the first time in history, Mixed Synchro events will be contested at a Commonwealth Games on both the 3-Metre Springboard and 10-Metre Platform.

Preliminary and final rounds will be contested at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre in individual events with the top 12 athletes from the preliminary moving through to the finals. Finals alone will be run for synchro events.

Each nation may enter two teams in synchro events and three divers in individual competitions.