‘Today’s score was 18 points higher than the score Tanya achieved to qualify for the Olympic Games.’
August 04, 2021
Tanya Watson, Ireland’s first Olympic female diver, has qualified for the Tokyo 2020 10m Platform Semi-Final.
The 19-year-old faced 29 of the world’s best in the preliminaries on Wednesday morning, but dived well throughout the round to score a total of 289.40 points across her five dives, which saw her finish 16th overall.
The divers with the top 18 scores in this round progress to Thursday morning’s semi-finals, and the top 12 scorers in those semi-finals will compete for the Olympic medals in the Final later that day.
Watson said: “I feel great, and just excited to go out there again and do my dives and get through again tomorrow. My first dive was pretty good for me, everything was consistent, so all my dives were on the head.
"My plan into the semi-finals is that I personally want to enjoy it again. I did really good diving today, so I’m really excited to find that again. Also tomorrow, I want to work on my entries into the water.”
Damian Ball, National Head Coach for Diving, said: “Consistency is key in these moments and that’s exactly what Tanya showed today, she competed with a cool head with solid dives.
“Today’s score was 18 points higher than the score Tanya achieved to qualify for the Olympic Games. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s semi-final and will fight for a spot in the finals .”
The semi-finals begin at 2am Irish time at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Full results and schedule: Diving - Preliminary Results (olympics.com)
Tanya Watson – 10m Platform Preliminaries Scores
| Dive | Degree of Difficulty | Score | Position |
| 1. Back 2½ Somersaults 1½ Twists | 3.2 | 62.4 | 13th |
| 2. Forward 3½ Somersaults | 3.0 | 57 | 14th |
| 3. Back 2½ Somersaults | 2.9 | 52.2 | 16th |
| 4. Reverse 2½ Somersaults | 2.8 | 60.2 | 16th |
| 5. Inward 3½ Somersaults | 3.2 | 57.6 | 16th |
