Article by Giovanni Manenti
In the various sports disciplines, and in the individual disciplines in particular, there are aathletes who make more headlines when they lose than when they winquoting, just to give a few examples of recent champions, Usain Bolt in Athletics, like Michael Phelps in Swimming, as well as Mike Tyson in Boxing or our own Valentina Vezzali in Fencing …
In the case we are dealing with today, rather than a single protagonist, we focus on a specialty, namely that of the Men’s 3-Mere Trampoline Dives, which has become the undisputed monopoly of the representatives of Chinajust think that they boast themselves a series still ongoing of 8 consecutive affirmations in the last editions of the World Championships (Melbourne 2007 to Budapest 2022), as well as being insured the top step of the Olympic Podium in 6 of the last 7 editions of the Gamesdomination that began with the affirmation of Xiong Ni in 1996 in Atlanta (success repeated four years later in Sydney …) with Xie Siyi having established himself at the beginning of August 2021 in Tokyo.
And this despite the fierce competition of two other great specialists – which we have already discussed – such as he canadese Alexandre Despatie (Silver in both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, as well as World Champion in Montreal 2005…) and the Russian Dmitri Saiutin (bronze in Sydney 200 and Athens 2004, after having secured the title at the World Championships in Perth 1998 and Fukuoka 2001), but where even these excellent exponents of the Discipline failed, the protagonist of our current History accomplishes the feat …
Born on May 2, 1991 in Leningrad, Ilya Zakharov prefers 3-metre springboard (both single and synchro…), with sporadic appearances from the Platform (always synchro, however…) and, after having stood out at the Juniores level, wets his debut in the Great International Events at the European Championships in Budapest, where he is silver from the trampoline both in the single event, defeated (463.20 points to 458.15) by the German Patrick Hausding who in sync with his compatriot Viktor Minibaev …
Continental Review that’s for Zakharov an inexhaustible source of medals – given that in his career he collects 9 Gold (2 individual and 7 synchro) and 6 Silver (3 individual and as many synchro, of which two from the Platform) – but there is no doubt that the “rock” consists of the Olympics and the World Cup, where he is forced to deal with the best Chinese and American specialists …
However, the fact remains that, presented in the “lion’s den”, or ai Shanghai 2011 World Championships, Zakharov does not appear intimidated at all, given that on 19 July he took his first world title, silver in synchro together with his partner Evgeny Kuznetsov with 451, 89 points, preceded only by the Chinese copy formed by Qin Kai (already Gold in the two previous editions of Melbourne 2007 and Rome 2009 paired with Wang Feng, as well as at the Beijing 2008 Games) and by his new partner Luo Yutong, which conclude at 463.98.
Two days later, the preliminaries and semi-finals of the individual competition from the trampoline, in which the hosts line up, in addition to Qin, the Olympic Champion of Beijing 2008 and the world champion of Rome 2009 He Chonggreat favorite on the eve, despite the fact that in the preliminaries Qin is preferred (504.75 to 500.40), to then reverse the situation in the semifinal series which sees him, albeit by a very narrow margin (523.50 to 523. 25) in the lead, with the 20-year-old Zakharov third, but well behind at 470.60 …
When, therefore, the 12 finalists show up at 17:00 local time on 22 July 2011 for the execution of the 6 dives that award the medals, the only doubt seems between who will have the upper hand between He and Qin and the rest of the group to compete for the last available place on the podiumforecast that remains so until the penultimate series, with Qin leads with 357.20 points, followed by He who closely follows him with 355.25 while Zakharov remains the “better than mere mortals” a quota 325.95 having to watch his back from his compatriot Kuznetsov with 324.30 …
And here the imponderable happens, that is with Qin who, in an attempt to shake off the dangerous He, proposes a dive with a difficulty coefficient of 3.8 (a quadruple somersault and a half forward) which he fails to execute (receiving scores ranging from 2.0 to 3.5 from the Judges) which cause him to slip to fifth position, in the meantime He maintains the right coolness to which he combines a spectacular execution in the last dive at his disposal which leads him to confirm the title in Rome with a total of 554.30 points, while the sensational mistake of Qin is to the full advantage of Soviet couple going on the podium, with Zakharov silver and Kuznetsov bronzewith respective scores of 508.95 and 493.55 while Qin only manages to recover fourth place from the American Troy Dumais.
Despite the disappointment suffered, Qin Kai is confirmed in the selection for the London 2012 Olympics, paired again with Lou Yutong in the synchro and entered together with He in the individual competition, just as Zakharov and Kuznetsov take part in the two distinct specialties, which, as usual, sees the pairs test open the program, scheduled for August 1, 2012 at the “London Aquatics Centre” of the British capital…
Race who lives in the duel between the two pairs protagonists of the World Championship Final in Shanghai and the American one made up of Dumais and Kristian Ipsenwho at the end of the fourth series of dives is in second position with 276.0 points, behind Qin and Lou who lead at an altitude of 283.02 and in front of the two Russians with 270.06, therefore a very fluid situation in which , irony of fate, Qin remedies the penultimate dive with that quadruple somersault and a half forward) that had taken away his individual world title the previous yearawarded this time with scores ranging from 8.5 to 9.5 and therefore being able to confirm the Beijing Gold with a total of 477.00 points …
Behind them, the challenge for the place of honor between the American and the Russian couple – with the latter reducing the margin of disadvantage to a minimum (360.00 to 359.31) in the penultimate series – resolved in favor of Zakharov and Kuznetsov thanks also for them to the identical execution of the aforementioned dive by the Chinese (ie the one with the highest difficulty coefficient, not scheduled by their opponents…) which allows them to replicate the identical placement in Shanghai, also improving their overall score with 459.63 points compared to the 446.70 of the US couple.
With a silver around their necks at their Olympic debut, the two Russian divers are now preparing to compete in the individual competition which, unlike what happened at the World Championship, foresees the preliminaries on 6 August 2012 and, the following day, the semi-finals at 10:00 and Final for the 12 best in the afternoon at 17:00final act for which, surprisingly, Kuznetsov did not qualify, whose performance was affected by a mediocre dive in the second series, resulting excluded by only 3.95 points, quite the opposite of Zakharov who proves to be in excellent condition, concluding the 6 semifinal rounds by inserting himself with 505.60 points between the Chinese couple which sees He ahead at an altitude of 510.15 and Qin third with 500.35 …
Relevant detachments however, including the Mexican Yanel Castillo, fourth in close contact with the Olympic synchro champion as well as Dumais, above all considering that everyone starts from scratch in the Final and having significantly reduced the gap compared to the more experienced Asians must have certainly instilled confidence Zakharov, who takes advantage of one of He’s very rare uncertainties in the first round (we are talking about a dive with a low coefficient of difficulty, so much so that, despite being judged with scores between 7.5 and 9.5, it is only worth 72.00 points) who is forced to chase, in eighth position, almost 15 points behind Castillo, with the 21-year-old Russian second just 1.70 points behind, with Qin also not having started in the best wayfourth with a gap of 5.70 points.
I understand that the “hell it’s not as bad as it sounds”, Zakharov presents in the second series a triple somersault and a half back (coefficient 3.5) which allows him to take the lead in the standings with 176.00 points and 4.30 ahead of Castillo, with the latter author of a regular race that still sees him in the lead at the end of the fourth rotation, while the comeback of the Chinese couple gradually begins even if the reigning Olympic Champion does not prove to be in his best condition, unlike Qin who achieves the best scores both in the third and in the fourth rotation, at the end of which he is at the top just 0.20 tenths of a point behind the 25-year-old Mexican, who boasts 4.00 points over Kuznetsov, with He climbing back to fourth position even though he is 28.00 points behind …
Per Castillo promises an opportunity to revive the glories of the “legendaryJoaquin Capilla (respectively, bronze, silver and gold from the Platform between London 1948 and Melbourne 1956), but emotion plays a bad joke, even though he proposes a fifth dive with reduced difficulty coefficient which sees him slip into third position with 427.95 points, a round which vice versa is to the full advantage of Qin who gets 96.90 points from the now “famous” quadruple somersault and a half forward, taking the lead at an altitude of 452.65 but with only a 1.20 point margin on a Zakharov who performs a triple and a half forward somersault with a twist (coefficient 3,9), and then with the last attempt at his disposal, he too attempts the quadruple and a half somersault forward, while Qin proposes a double jump mortal and half reversed with a twist and a half, with a coefficient of 3.3 …
Castillo fights for the podium by failing the last dive so as to relegate from third to sixth position, to the benefit of He who is already sure of the bronze when he appears on the trampoline Zakharov who performs in an execution at the limits of perfection – awarded with two 10.0 one 9.5 three 9.0 and one 8.5 – per a total of 555.90 which takes him to the lead when Qin still has to make his attempt which, although successful (one 9.5 and five 9.0) penalizes it for the reduced difficulty, so that the Russia can go back to celebrating Gold from the Trampoline (not counting the success of Aleksandr Portnov in 1980 in Moscow, given the absence of Greg Louganis …) a good 40 years after the success of Vladimir Vasin at the 1972 Munich Games.
He takes his revenge the following year at the 2013 World Cup in Barcelona ahead of Kuznetsov – thus equaling the primacy of the American Phil Boggs of three consecutive world titles – while Zakharov will still be silver in 2015 in Kazan and bronze in 2017 in Budapest, but meanwhile the privilege of having been the only one to break what could have been a streak of 7 consecutive Chinese victories is solely and exclusively his …
And, as they say in these cases, sorry if it’s too little…
