Debutant Ellie Shines in Seventh, Veteran Mel Takes 11th

Debutant Ellie Cole has closed out her Olympic campaign with an impressive seventh-place finish in the Women’s 10m Platform final, while teammate and five-time Olympian Melissa Wu was 11th.

Both the apprentice and the master entered the final day of their competition primed to improve on their qualification performances, with precision and consistency key to their success.

The Australians opened their competition with strong dives to set the tone for their event, with Ellie scoring a 64.50 and Melissa a 58.50 on a forward 3½ piked somersault.

From there, Ellie’s performance improved throughout the competition as she moved up the rankings, with her final dive, a back 2½ somersault with ½ twists seeing her score a 62.40

She finished the competition with a final score of 333.30, placing her in seventh at the end of the event, and was overall pleased with her first Olympic experience and results.

“I was pretty happy with my dives and think most of them were pretty good,” Ellie said.

“The nerves still haven’t left me, but I was there to have fun and I really wanted to enjoy this, so I’m excited for what’s to come after this.”

Meanwhile, Melissa showcased her experience throughout the event, with her second dive of an armstand back double somersault 1½ twists of particular note, her highest score at 64.00.

Her final dive, a back 2½ pike somersault with ½ twists, was one of her strongest, as she recorded a score of 62.40 to finish with a total of 278.30 points in 11th place.

For Mel, it was an emotional day at the pool, with injuries in the lead up to the Games proving challenging and precluding her ability to be at peak performance.

“It was very difficult for me to get to these Olympics and a fifth Olympics is pretty incredible now that I look back on it,” Melissa said.

“This one has definitely been the hardest by far so getting up, backing up two days of diving, just to get to that last dive I was feeling every emotion, but I’m super proud to represent Australia again.

“Moments like this make it all worth it and being able to go to a fifth Olympic Games is an amazing achievement.”

The Chinese continued to show their dominance in the event, as Quan Hongchan defended her title from Tokyo 2020 with a perfect score on her first dive helping to boost her up the rankings to claim gold with 425.60 points.

She was joined on the podium by teammate Chen Yuxi who won silver with 420.70 points, while Kim Mi Rae (PRK) took home bronze on 372.10.

China, considered a powerhouse of diving in recent years, have now won the gold medal in the Women’s 10m Platform in every Olympic Games since Beijing 2008.

The diving action continues Wednesday when Kurtis Mathews returns for the Men’s 3m Springboard semi-final at 6pm AEST, while Maddi Keeney and Alysha Koloi will begin preliminaries for the Women’s 3m Springboard at 11pm AEST.

Article courtesy of AOC