Dramatic finish in high diving: Iris Schmidbauer celebrates EM gold
Created: 08/19/2022, 19:51
By: Paul Hopp
European champion Iris Schmidbauer with silver medalist Antonina Vyshyvanova (left) from Ukraine and third-placed Elisa Cosetti (right).
© FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP
The women's high diving competition at the European Swimming Championships was extremely exciting.
At the end Iris Schmidbauer from Pähl cheered.
The second German, on the other hand, was unlucky.
Rome - As Iris Schmidbauer got ready for her final, fourth jump, the sun bathed the platform and the staker in a golden light.
A heavenly sign of what was to come after.
Because at the award ceremony, the 27-year-old got the gold medal around her neck.
With 309.30 points, Schmidbauer won the high-diving competition on Friday evening and secured the European title.
The impaler deserved the success.
Of all eight participants, she had the most difficult program.
In the final round she went - together with Anna Bader with the same number of points - as second.
In front of both was the Italian Elisa Cosetti, who had shone in the third round.
The local hero and Bader did not do so well in the final attempts.
Dramatic finish with a happy ending
In the end, Cosetti was third (284.30), Bader (281.90) fourth, just behind.
The staker completed her jump all the better: a backwards jumped triple somersault with two twists.
So she took the lead.
Ukraine's Antonina Vyshyvanova (295.4), who had started to catch up in the final, took silver.
Clean execution: Iris Schmidbauer during one of her jumps on the second day of the European Swimming Championships.
© Gregorio Borgia
Schmidbauer started the second day of competition as second place.
After two laps she was only 5.10 points behind Bader.
Schmidbauer's gap to third-placed Cosetti was 15.50 points.
Schmidbauer wins EM title in high diving
Medals in high diving were awarded this year for the first time as part of a swimming championship.
The women jump from 20 meters and the men from 27 meters.
In Rome, the men will determine the winner in two final rounds on Saturday.
At half-time, the Romanian Catalin Preda leads.
The German Manuel Halbish is in 13th place. This extreme sport has been part of the World Cup program since 2013.
At the premiere in Barcelona, Anna Bader won bronze.
In competitions of the World Swimming Federation FINA, the discipline, which is commonly known as cliff jumping, operates under the term "high diving".
In any case, people rarely jump off real cliffs anymore.
In the "Red Bull Cliff Diving" series, too, the athletes plunge down from platforms that are sometimes set up in special places.
Recently in Oslo, the participants jumped from the roof of the opera house.
