Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung, 3rd Place in Mixed 3m… Korea’s First Synchronized Diving Medal
Lee Jae-kyung is the second Korean athlete to win three World Aquatics Championships medals, following Kim Su-ji and Park Tae-hwan.
Lee Jae-kyung is the first Korean male diving athlete to reach the podium.
Kim Su-ji (25, Ulsan Metropolitan City Hall) also won a bronze medal in the diving mixed synchro 3m springboard event, which she performed with Lee Jae-kyung (24, Incheon Metropolitan City Hall).
Su-ji, who became the first Korean diving World Aquatics Championships medalist in Gwangju in 2019, won two medals in Doha this year, becoming the second Korean athlete to win three World Championship medals, following Park Tae-hwan.
Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung took third place with a total of 285.03 points from the first to fifth periods in the 2024 World Championships Diving Mixed Synchro 3m Springboard Final held at the Hamad Aquatic Center in Doha, Qatar on the 10th.
Kim Su-ji, who won a bronze medal in the women’s 3m springboard, an official Olympic event, this morning in Korean time, won another bronze medal. 바카라사이트
It was the best Lunar New Year gift given to Korean diving.
Including the bronze medal in women’s 1m springboard at the Gwangju Games, Kim Su-ji holds a total of three world championship medals.
Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung were also recorded as the first Korean athletes to win a World Championship medal in synchro events.
In the finals on this day, Kim Soo-ji and Lee Jae-kyung masterfully performed the 205B performance of jumping backwards into the pool with their backs to the pool, holding their legs, and spinning around for two and a half laps in the fourth period, rising to third place.
They made a mistake in the 5152B movement with a twist in the final 5th period, but Grace Reed and Ross Haslam (Great Britain), who were competing for the rankings, made an even bigger mistake, allowing Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung to remain in third place.
Lee Jae-kyung, who was disappointed after the 5th period ended, smiled brightly after checking the rankings.
The British team’s total score was 278.28 points, 6.75 points lower than Korea’s.
Mixed synchro 3m springboard is not an official Olympic event.
China, the strongest diving team, did not participate in this event.
However, countries other than China formed teams with top players, and Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung proved their ‘competitiveness’.
In the final on this day, Madison Kinney and Domonic Bedgood (Australia) won with 300.93 points, and Chiara Pelacani and Matteo Santoro (Italy) took second place with 287.49 points.
The gap between Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung and the second-place Italian team was only 2.46 points.
At last year’s Fukuoka Games, Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung placed fourth in this event.
Kim Su-ji expected, “If I finish the mixed synchronized 3m competition in Doha without making any mistakes, I think I will be able to go one step higher than last year.”
As he expected, Kim Su-ji and Lee Jae-kyung went up one step from last year and won bronze medals.
Until today, a total of four Korean athletes have won medals at the previous World Aquatics Championships.
Tae-hwan Park ranked first in the 400m freestyle and third in the 200m at the 2007 Melbourne Games, and won the gold medal in the 400m freestyle in Shanghai in 2011.
Sunwoo Hwang (Gangwon Provincial Office) ranked second in Budapest in 2022 and third in Fukuoka in 2023 in the men’s 200m freestyle.
Following the women’s 1m springboard at the 2019 Gwangju Games, Kim Su-ji won bronze medals in the women’s springboard and mixed synchronized 3m springboard in Doha this year, becoming the ‘Korean most medalist’ along with Park Tae-hwan.
There are only two Korean athletes, Park Tae-hwan and Kim Su-ji, who have won more than two medals at a ‘single world championship’.
Other than Su-ji Kim, no Korean female athlete has won a medal.
Although Jaekyung Lee is a mixed synchro event, he is the first Korean male diver to reach the podium at the World Championships.
Korean swimming’s previous World Championship medals increased to 8 (2 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze).
Kim Su-ji, who was diagnosed with torn left knee cartilage in December last year, overcame the pain and achieved the feat of winning two medals in Doha.
Suji Kim also secured the right to participate in the women’s 3m springboard at the Paris Olympics.
Kim Su-ji, who has confirmed her third Olympic appearance following London in 2012 and Tokyo in 2021, will build on the momentum of her World Championships medal win and challenge for ‘the first Olympic medal harvest in Korean diving history’.
Lee Jae-kyung, the ‘atmospheric plastic diver’, also had an unforgettable moment.
Jae-Kyung Lee competed in her first Asian Games in Hangzhou last year and won three medals, including two silver and one bronze.
She won a spot at the Paris Olympics in the men’s 3m springboard event at the Doha World Championships, and was thrilled to win a medal in the mixed synchro event.
Jaekyung Lee gave her best holiday gift to her diver wife, Yuna Kang.