South African diver Julia Vincent finished 13th overall in the 3m springboard preliminaries on Wednesday to book a spot in her first Olympic semi-final.
Vincent is competing at her third Olympic Games but never made it through the preliminaries in Tokyo or Rio — finishing well out of contention in both, in 25th and 29th place respectively.
The 29-year-old said these would be her last Games and she has set her sights firmly on the final, having reached the 2023 World Championship final last year in Fukuoka and then again this February in Doha.
On Wednesday, she got off to a great start, scoring 61.50 off her first of five dives to sit in joint ninth position at the end of the round and lay a great platform for the remainder of the preliminaries.
Vincent needed to finish in the top 18 to progress to tomorrow’s semifinals. Her best dive of the afternoon was her third one — reversed two and a half somersaults, piked — for which she scored 63.00. And with scores of 54.00 for her second, 46.50 for her fourth and 58.50 for the fifth, she finished with a total of 283.5 to advance in 13th place.
Speaking after the competition, Vincent said she always finds the preliminaries the toughest round of the competition but was thrilled with her performance. “So much better [than Tokyo]. Big relief off my shoulders. I think the hardest part is just staying steady and making sure that I advance and go on to the next round.
“That's what I'm trying to do, just keep it even keel as much as I can, but I'm very happy with that… I felt very, very nervous this morning and then I came out to warm up and I felt pretty good.”
Speaking about her lowest-scoring dive, Vincent explained: “It’s so frustrating because I love that dive actually. But it'll come when it needs to come.”
As for the great form she has been enjoying in the last year, finishing ninth at the Doha World Championships and 10th in Fukuoka, Vincent added: “I think I'm definitely in a different place in my training than I have been, and hopefully my emotional maturity as well, and I'm really just trying to have a great time.
“My main goal is to have a great time and really stay present, just take it one dive at a time. So I feel pretty good physically and mentally.”
The 3m springboard semifinals are scheduled for 10am on Thursday, with a top-12 place required to advance to Friday’s final.
Swimming South Africa