Chiara Pellacani, who combined with Matteo Santoro to earn Italy’s first world diving gold since 2015 in the 3m synchro event, also secured two individual medals for herself at this year’s World Aquatics Championships.
Pellacani, who turned 23 on September 12, had already earned four world medals, all in synchro events, but in Singapore she won bronze medals in the 1m and 3m springboard.
Earlier in the summer Pellacani had achieved success at the European Aquatics Diving Championships in Antalya, where she won the 1m springboard title.
Other European women divers reached the podium in Singapore, with Germany’s Pauline Pfeif taking silver in the 10m platform – her first world medal – and Britain’s Paris 2024 bronze medallists Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen finishing second in the 3m synchro.
Pfeif also competed in Antalya, coming away from the Turkish venue with silver medals in the team event and the 10m platform behind Italy’s 25-year-old Sarah Jodoin Di Maria – who claimed the first individual European gold of her career.
The German diver also earned bronze in the mixed 10m synchro and the women’s 10m synchro. The latter medal came in partnership with Caroline Coordes in an event where Spain’s Valeria Antolino and Ana Carvajal, silver medallists the year before in Belgrade, claimed their country’s only medal of the Championships and made it golden.
Switzerland’s Michelle Heimberg, who had taken the rest of 2024 off after failing to qualify for the Paris 2024 Games, made a telling return to international competition as she took bronze in the 1m springboard event which she had won in 2023 before taking gold in the 3m springboard with a superbly consistent display.
Ukrainian divers excelled in Antalya, with 16-year-old Kseniia Bochek and 18-year-old Diana Karnafel, the world junior 3m synchro champions, earning gold in that event in their senior international debut as they finished ahead of Germany’s Lena Hentschel and Jette Muller and Britain’s defending champions Desharne Bent-Ashmeil and Amy Rollinson.
Kseniya Baylo secured silver in the team event and the 10m platform synchro partnering Sofiya Lyskun, and combined with Kirill Boliukh to take gold in the mixed 10m platform synchro.
At the European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships in Athens Karnafel’s victory in the Girls A 3m springboard helped Ukraine win the Team Trophy.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
