Ukraine pair deliver dramatic last act to seal first diving gold
Ukraine's world bronze medallist Oleg Kolodiy and 16-year-old partner Sofiia Lyskun on Monday left their best performances for a dramatic last round to seal gold in the mixed team competition, the opening event of the diving at the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.
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The Ukrainians stood third before their final two dives behind early leaders Russia and Germany at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh.
But Kolodiy, who took bronze in the 3m synchronised springboard event at the world championships last year, produced a confident last dive off the 3m platform with the toughest degree of difficulty of his series. Lyskun also executed her hardest dive off the 10m platform well to secure a winning overall total of 355.90 points.
Germany, who only put together their pair of Lou Massenberg and Maria Kurjo 24 hours before the competition because of an injury to veteran European champion Patrick Hausding, took the silver with 352.60 ahead of third-placed Russians Iullia Timoshinina and Evgenii Kuznetsov with 349.55.
The Russian pair gambled by selecting their most difficult dives for the early rounds and took the lead after the first four dives. But they were unable to get enough points from their hardest dives and ran out of steam in the final round, setting up Ukraine's dramatic finish.
"It is unpredictable in our sport. You need to fight until the last dive and everything is decided on the last dive," Kolodiy said. "In the end we got it thanks to the higher coefficient and the slightly better execution of the dives."
The silver medal was a surprise for the German team after 17-year-old Massenberg had to step in to partner the experienced, Kurjo, 28.
"I told him when we were on the podium that I was so proud of him," Kurjo said. "He has been so cool for a 17-year-old, coming in at the last minute. I'm surprised we have got this silver but I think we just produced consistent dives."
Massenberg said: "I didn't know until 11.30 am yesterday that I was going to take part. There were three candidates for the spot. This is all wonderful but it is going to take a while for it all to sink in."
