European divers produced a contest of pulverising world class quality in the men’s 3m springboard final here at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. And just as he had done to retain his 1m title four days earlier, Germany’s Moritz Wesemann produced a huge and dramatic final flourish, earning gold with a score of 95.55.
Earlier in the evening Ukraine, who topped the medal standings at last year’s European Aquatics Diving Championships with five golds, earned their first at Paris 2026 as Oleksii Sereda and Kseniia Baylo dominated the 10m synchro final.
Wesemann was masterly as he secured his second gold of the Championships. But he benefited from a calamitous finish by Great Britain’s Jordan Houlden, whose fourth and fifth round scores of 91.65 and 91.80 had left him with a 16.15 lead going into the last round – despite the fact that Wesemann had scored 95.00 in round five.
After France’s Jules Bouyer, diving early in the round, had buoyed the crowd by returning to the top of the pile with a mighty effort of 91.20 that took him to a final total of 484.60 the title appeared to lie in Houlden’s hands as he stepped forward for his last dive – a Forward 4½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) with degree difficulty 3.8.
In the morning preliminaries he had ended with a disappointing score of 51.30 for the same dive. This time, agonisingly, it was worse as his total of 47.50 left him on 474.90.
His silver turned to bronze as Wesemann concluded with imperturbable brilliance. It was the most exciting diving final Paris 2026 has so far witnessed.
Wesemann, who had retained his 1m title on day 2 with a masterly final dive earning 86.40, was set on upgrading the bronze he earned at last year’s Europeans, leading the morning qualifiers by more than 25 points with a total of 446.25 from Great Britain’s Ross Haslam and Houlden.
But the German began indifferently and arrived at round two placed 11th of 12 after a score of 66.30 in a list headed by home hope Jules Bouyer on 78.20 and Italy’s Giovanni Tocci on 77.50.
Wesemann, diving last in the round, was 90.10 off the lead when he took off and just 3.40 away from the lead when he landed as his Forward 2½ Somersaults 2 Twists Pike (5154B) with a degree difficulty of 3.4 – the lowest of his six ambitious dives – had earned him 86.70. Back in the game.
He wasn’t the only one finding top form hjowever.
Houlden hit the heights with his third-round effort as he earned a huge 89.25 from his Reverse 3½ Somersaults Tuck (307C) dive with 3.5 degree difficulty, going into the lead on 243.95.
His fellow native of Sheffield, Haslam, almost matched him with the next dive as he scored 88.40 to reach 228.80, just behind Bouyer on 232.90.
Last of round three was Wesemann, and he took was in the 80s, scoring 81.00 to stand second at the halfway point on 234.00.
Bouyer, who had high 70s in his first three dives, maintained momentum as he scored 84.00 in round four to become early leader on 316.90, to the huge appreciation of packed stands either side of him. Who if anyone would come past him?
Houlden’s effort was Forward 2½ Somersaults 3 Twists Pike (5156B) with a 3.9 degree difficulty – the highest of all dives chosen by the field – and it yielded him a superb score of 91.65 which put him 18.70 points ahead of Bouyer on 335.60.
Wesemann had to produce his best score of the competition thus far, 82.25, to keep in the running for medals as the field went through to round five, totalling 316.25, ahead of Haslam on 316.25.
Bouyer, jumping third, kept his nerve to score 76.50 and stay in the running for medals. Soon he found his comrade Alexis Jandard moving into second place after scoring 87.50. Home excitement rising…
Houlden, who had lamented after the 1m final that he had found it hard to keep going during a competition timed late in the evening – past his normal bedtime of 22.00 – appeared laser-focused as he earned another huge score, 91.80, for his Back 3½ Somersaults Tuck (207C) dive worth 3.6 degree difficulty to resume the lead on 427.40.
The 28-year-old Briton was in territory beyond the reach of most of his rivals – but not Wesemann, who saw Houlden’s 91s and raised them, earning 95.00 for his Forward 4½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) dive worth 3.6 degree difficulty. It moved him up to 411.25 – but he was still 16.35 adrift of Houlden.
The level of accomplishment among the front-runners was astounding. None could afford to dip below that standard in the final round…
Bouyer was also diving out of his skin. His early final effort – a Forward 4½ Somersaults Tuck (109C) with 3.8 DD – earned him 91.20 and much noise.
Houlden stepped up – and dropped back.
Wesemann, last to dive, only needed to better 73.00 to win. He managed that with a lot to spare, reaching a final staggering total of 506.80.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” Wesemann told European Aquatics. “It’s insane to notice how intense the competition is.
“I tried not to listen to any scores, but I did notice and saw how great the competition was, particularly with the scores from the British divers. I did feel a lot of pressure but I was astonished that I was actually able to win in the end and over 500 points.
” I knew I was going for a medal but I didn’t know if it would be good enough for gold or even fourth place. Having these scores at Europeans really pushes myself and the environment and really shows how strong Europe is in comparison to the other countries leading towards LA2028.”
Bouyard commented: “It was amazing today. I didn’t know when the next competition in France would be and the public was incredible. I think they screamed more than at the Olympics! It was just so good.
“Today reminded me of the Olympics, but the last three months have not been easy and I’ve had lots of challenges, but I gave everything today. I failed a few days ago in synchro and I was sorry to Alexis (team-mate) but I gave everything I had today. Silver means a lot as I think it’s my best competition of my career. To achieve this after all of the problems means a lot to me.”
Houlden was philosophical after his wonderful contribution to the evening’s competition ” It feels great,” he said..”I did five really great dives and one bad dive, so overall it feels great.
“To hit those dives the way I did was unreal and I enjoyed every bit of it, even the dive that didn’t go too well. There were so many emotions during that final, but it’s always a joy to be in a competition like that. I just need to work on a few things and I’ll sharpen up for next time.”
Baylo, who won the mixed 10m synchro at Antalya last year with Kirill Boliukh, now found herself partnering a 20-year-old who had just received his award as EA male diver of 2025 and the result was similarly golden.
They took over the lead in the second of the five rounds and remained there with three escalatingly good scores to hold off the challenge of Germany’s Ole Rosler and Pauline Pfeif, who won bronze in this event last year with Luis Avila Sanchez.
The German pair also finished strongly, registering third and fourth round scores of 74.88 and 70.20 respectively to be within 3.48 of the Ukraine pairing going into the final round.
Diving first, Sereda and Baylo signed off at their highest point as they registered 81.60 for their Back 2½ Somersaults 1½ Twists Pike (5253B) dive with 3.2 degree difficulty, taking their final score to 323.16.
That brought Sereda’s personal haul at these Championships to three, including two earlier bronzes, and raised his total collection of European medals – which he has been collecting since he was 13 – to 14.
Rosler and Pfeif were left needing to better 85.08 to win. Their response was good, but not quite good enough as they garnered 79.68 from their own version of the Ukrainian’s final dive to claim silver on 317.76.
Bronze went to Spain’s Jorege Ledesma and Ana Carvajal, who took over third place from the NAB – featuring Miroslav Kiselev and Aleksandra Kedrina, who won European junior 10m gold in June – with superior scores of 71.28 and 70.08 in the final two rounds to total 297.48.
NAB were fourth on 292.56, with Italy’s Raffaele Pelligra and Sarah Jodoin di Maria fifth on 290.22 and the Dutch pairing of Lars van Hilten and Else Praasterink sixth on 267.76.
Baylo commented: “It was so fun. I really like to train and compete with Oleksii, I didn’t feel pressure or afraid, i felt confident and it was fun. We trained before the competition once and some dives we did for the first time yesterday, but it’s always easy with Oleksii.”
“I really like to win gold medals, so that reminds me how much I love this sport.,” Sereda said. “I now feel much more confident for tomorrow, which is the individual, and I hope to perform well there again.
“It’s really important to represent out country at a high level and we have a great chance to represent Ukraine and sing out the anthem and we did great today. I’m proud of myself, Kseniia (Baylo) and my country.”
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Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
