The FINA Diving World Cup that will take place in the Beijing Olympic
pool on February 19-25 will bring the answer to a very important question:
which countries will fight for medals at the 2008 Olympic Games
synchronised events. It promises to be a tough competition as eight duos
(including the host country) are allowed to compete and just four places
are still available in each event.
As an example, it's easy to look back at FINA’s World Cup organised in 2006 in Changshu. The result was absolutely unique: ten gold medals in ten events during the five-day tournament.
Actually, it's very difficult to predict how the competition will run in Beijing. February is not a right period to be on top of your shape in the Olympic season. Especially for those who have real chances not only to fight for the medals at the Olympics, but to move the Chinese divers from the leading positions. There are not too many names: firstly, it is worth of note the 2007 world champion Gleb Galperin (Russia) or Alexandre Despatie (Canada), who won the world title in 2003 and 2005.
No doubt there are a lot of other athletes who are able to perform well during this special season but having the world crown in the past makes any athlete much more ambitious and dangerous.
The other biggest advantage of this World Cup is the possibility to try all the Olympic facilities six months before the Games and to feel the atmosphere of the venue and of the Olympic capital itself.
Gleb Galperin surprised the audience when he won the platform event in
Melbourne. He suffered from a serious back injury that time and was quite
angry: a couple of days before the platform final he took part in the
synchro springboard competition with Alexander Dobroskok. His partner made
two big mistakes (suddenly stopped on the board instead of diving) and all
the hopes of a Russian pair to qualify for the Games were lost. Moreover,
Galperin had just aggravated his back injury for nothing. At 10 metres
however, Gleb scored 554.70, leaving behind both rivals from China - Zhou
Luxin (with 519.15) and Lin Yue (513.70).
With Dmitry Dobroskok (the younger brother of Alexander) he got the silver
in the synchro platform final.
Fight for an Olympic ticket
There is one special thing about the Word Cup that is held in the Olympic
year. On the one hand this competition gives the possibility to almost 20
divers in each individual event (besides those 12 who qualified for the
Games at the 2007 World Championships) to get tickets to Beijing. On the
other hand – there is no need for the leaders to do their best at the very
beginning of the year. Synchronised teams have their own and different
story. It is easier to achieve success there. Everybody remembers the
Greek team in Athens where Nikolaos Siranidis and Thomas Bimis captured
gold medals on the 3m springboard though a lot of specialists didn’t even
predicted such a scenario.
It means that every team out of the eight that will finally participate at
the Olympics in Beijing has its own chance. But first of all those who
didn’t pass the qualification will be convinced to do their best in
February.
The next thrilling story – is about the veterans. When a person is
involved in sport for many years and has a lot of victories in the past,
the nationality goes to a secondary plan. Great divers such as Dmitry
Sautin, Yulia Pakhalina, Laura Wilkinson are more like symbols of world
diving than divers of a certain country. It is one of the reasons why the
audience (no matter where the competitions are being held) always wishes
them good luck. Sautin got 10 European victories during his 15-year
career, five gold medals at the FINA World Championships (four
individual); he has also an outstanding collection of Olympic podiums (two
gold, one silver and four bronze). Pakhalina got synchronised springboard
gold in Sydney, silver in the same event in Athens, one individual bronze
from the same Games and she is still the diver who is able to overcome the
Chinese divers in both springboard events.
As for Wilkinson – the winner of the Sydney Games on the 10m platform -,
she still has the most complicated free programme, which is, at her age,
an outstanding achievement.
It is extremely difficult to get the gold (and sometimes even the silver medal) from the Chinese divers. Especially when the competition is held on their own territory.
One more interesting fact: both Sautin and Pakhalina are preparing to
compete in Beijing with new partners. After the split with Alexander
Dobroskok, Sautin decided to try pairing with the young Yuri Kunakov. When
Dmitry won his first silver medal in 1991 at the European Championships in
Athens, Kunakov was 18 months old. Their team finished second at the
European Championships in Budapest at 2006 after only two months of
training. The second Russian male’s duo is Galperin/Dobroskok. And it is
not yet decided which team will represent the country in summer.
Pakhalina is diving with Anna Pozdnyakova and they are competitive enough
together to fight for the medals at any competition. The irony is that
both male and female Russian springboard teams didn’t qualify for the
Games. So it will certainly be interesting to witness thrilling moments at
the World Cup.
The other biggest advantage of this World Cup is the possibility to try
all the Olympic facilities six months before the Games and to feel the
atmosphere of the venue and of the Olympic capital itself. Frankly
speaking, diving is a very Chinese sport. Hopefully, China’s stars will be
strong enough both in February and in August.
2008 CALENDAR
FINA DIVING GRAND PRIX:
• January 18-20 Madrid (ESP)
• Feb. 29-March 2 Shenzhen (CHN)
• April 10-13 Moscow (RUS)
• May 1-4 Montreal (CAN) *
• May 8-11 Ft. Lauderdale (USA)
• June 6-8 Rostock (GER)
• June 13-15 Rome (ITA)
2nd FINA DIVING WORLD SERIES:
• April 25-26 Mexico City (MEX)
• May 3-4 Montreal (CAN) *
• May 24-25 Sheffield (GBR)
• May 31-June 1 Nanjing (CHN)
* meets to be confirmed