Team Ireland’s first diver Oliver Dingley took to Tokyo Aquatics Centre at 07:00 looking for qualification to for the semi-final
China’s Zongyuan Wang and Korea’s Haram Woo were the big favourites in this event but the Irish man only needed to finish top 18 to make in to the semi-final.
This was Dingley’s second appearance at the Games after he became Ireland’s first Olympic diver in 68 years while in Rio 2016.
Scoring works by seven judges scoring the dive, the highest two and lowest two scores are crossed out. The remaining three scores are added together and multiplied by the degree of difficulty for a final score.
Ireland’s Oliver Dingley making his first dive of the #Tokyo2020 Olympic Games in Men’s 3m Springboard today, and becoming a double Olympian in the process! Best of luck Oliver! @TeamIreland @IrishEmbJapan pic.twitter.com/Y6mmUJHyyY
— Ireland in Japan (@IrishEmbJapanEN) August 2, 2021
Dingley came up in 18th in Round 1 of diving. Many of his other competitors seemed nervy going into the event with a few small mistakes making the scoring low.
The Dublinman started with his easiest dive, an inward two and a half somersault with only a difficulty of three. He received sevens across the board from the judges.
He knew he would have to go harder in the next round to bring his score into qualification place.
Dingley next tried a forward three and a half somersault with a difficulty of 3.1. He did not score well, not tucking correctly and over rotating.
.@OliverDingley gets his Olympics underway with an inwards 2 1/2 somersaults effort #olympics #tokyo2020 #RTESport #Diving
📺 Watch live – https://t.co/fmILnhxvf7
📱 Updates – https://t.co/JMtWFZP56o pic.twitter.com/ePR570xTdk
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 2, 2021
He continued to up the difficulty in round 3 with a 3.4, forward two and a half somersault with two twists. Dingley was not happy again as he was over on entry, getting himself 5.5 from the judges.
At the halfway point in diving, Dingley sat in 26th place and would need to improve on his final three for a chance of progression.
His fourth dive did not please the Irish man either as he attempted an easier 3 difficulty but under rotated and did not score well again.
At this point Wang had breezed ahead of all the other competitors given himself more than 20 point lead. After round four, Dingley was in 27th.
Following two great dives, Dingley attempted a reverse 2 and half somersault. Although slightly over rotating, this was one of his better dives so far.
With his final dive he would need 40 more points than the men ahead of him to qualify but Dingley still gave it his all.
In his final dive, he tried a back two and a half somersault with a one and a half twist. Although he performed the routine cleanly, it would not be enough to progress.
China’s Wang easily got first and is now favourite for gold. Dingley bowed out of the Olympics finishing in 25th with 335 points.
#Diving In his penultimate dive @OliverDingley scores 57.0 & is placed 26th on the leaderboard with an overall score of 273.8 #TeamIreland #Tokyo2020 @swimireland pic.twitter.com/GXTxSmzcKW
— Team Ireland (@TeamIreland) August 2, 2021
