Germany’s Moritz Wesemann earned a second gold at the European Aquatics Diving Championships Antalya 2025 as he won his first men’s 1m springboard title following Saturday’s success with Timo Barthel in the 3m synchro.
Wesemann’s golden flourish, which kept Germany second in the medals table, came after a dramatic conclusion to the mixed 10m platform final in which his team-mates Pauline Pfeif and Luis Avila saw gold turn to bronze as their performance level dipped on the very last dive of the event.
Wesemann, who had finished 38.65 points clear of Lorenzo Marsaglia in the morning’s preliminary competition with a total of 413.80, had to work a lot harder in the final to move clear of the 28-year-old Italian.
He took lead in the fourth of the six rounds after the latter’s level had dipped.
But Marsaglia got back in the mix with a fifth dive that earned him 72.00 and left him just 2.65 behind his German rival going into the final round.
A concluding effort of 64.00 put the Italian into the lead with only Wesemann to dive. Needing to better 61.35 to win he totalled 70.20 with his final Reverse 1½ Somersaults 3½ Twists Free dive (5337D) to total 400.60.
Marsaglia earned silver on 391.75, with bronze going to Ukraine’s 21-year-old Konovalov, whose final effort yielding 72.00 kept him ahead of Poland’s defending champion Andrzej Rzeszutek by 390.55 to 380.90.
For Wesemann, who also earned silver in the opening day’s mixed team event, it was perfect preparation for the last day of competition on Wednesday when he will seek to regain the 3m springboard title he won in 2023.
“I am very much satisfied, especially as I could show my performance twice. This morning was even better than this afternoon, but in the afternoon I could show very good dives. I didn’t make any big mistakes and so I am very grateful for the whole day’s competition.
“What makes my success here especially satisfying is that the first time I competed at the European Championships in 2022 I placed fourth – very, very close to the third place. And Lorenzo won there.
“So now it’s very nice to come back to the European Championships and show I am capable of winning gold.
“This encourages me a lot for my final event which is the 3m springboard in two days’ time.”
Marsaglia, who came perilously close to dropping his silver medal into the pool after his ceremony as he tried to adjust the hood on his tracksuit top, commented: “I tried really hard to win, but unfortunately I missed one so I came second.
“I’m happy, but not that much. I’m happy for Moritz, who is my good friend. As for me – maybe next year!”
Konovalov added: “I feel very good to earn my first medal in the 1m competition. My last dive is my so-stable dive and I was very proud of it.”
Earlier everything appeared to be going perfectly for Pfeif – who had already earned silver in the mixed team and women’s 10m platform – and her 19-year-old partner Avila, who had earned victory in the mixed 3m synchro with Lena Hentschel by the historically narrow margin of 0.03 points.
Successive scores of 76.80 – the highest recorded in the final – had seen the new pairing arrive at the fifth and final round with a lead of 10.38 over Ukraine’s 2023 champions Kseniia Bailo and Kirill Boliukh. Last to go, it was all in their hands.
But after Avila appeared to land askew the enthusiastic German support fell silent and the pair loitered despondently at poolside to see their fears confirmed on the scoreboard.
A score of 52.50 dropped them to third with a total of 297.00, leaving Ukraine’s Kseniia Bailo and 18-year-old Kirill Boliukh as winners on 308.34, with Italy – represented by Riccardo Giovannini and women’s 10m platform individual champion Sarah Jodoin di Maria – claiming silver on 298.74.
For Bailo, 20, this was a third European mixed 10m synchro gold to go with the bronze she earned last year with Marko Barsukov.
Asked if she still had hopes of gold as the German pair prepared to take their last dive, Bailo told European Aquatics: “Actually, no. It was such a tense situation after Germany’s last dive, but I’m very excited. Everyone can make a mistake and everything can happen in sport, so today we won. We stay strong, and keep going.
“I’m happy to show the same result as we had in 2023, because we work hard every day to achieve success.”
Boliukh added: “it’s good to win another gold for Ukraine, because right now a lot of bad things are happening there, and we need to put our flag on the top.”
“We are really happy about the bronze medal,” Pfeif said. “It’s our first time diving together, we did just one session right before the competition. So I think we did good.
“We are a bit sad about the last dive because I think the gold medal was really close, but we are going to work on the dives and I think this first competition has gone great.
Avila added: “I feel great going home from these Championships with a bronze and a gold,” Avila said. “As Pauline said, we were looking for a gold medal. But it’s our first time diving together and it’s a great way to start. If we keep up the work we can achieve many more successes.”
Di Maria commented: “I’m very pleased with what we did, because honestly we didn’t train a lot – we trained this morning and it was the first time we did four out of our five dives.
“So it was very stressful, but at the same time it was fun because synchro is always fun to do, and mixed synchro is the most fun competition out of all of them.
“I think we were fighting for third place for the whole of the competition because our first dive was a mess! I was expecting third place even after the missed dive from the German team, so we are happy to take silver.”
Spain’s defending champions Valeria Antolino and Carlos Camacho, the 2024 men’s champion, finished one place off the podium with 290.58, ahead of Poland’s siblings Robert and Maria Lukaszewicz – the only team not to use the same five dives in this competition – on 285.78.
Great Britain’s Hannah Newbrook, 19, and 15-year-old Robbie Wood, who had finished eighth in the previous day’s men’s final, were sixth on 257.40.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
