Women in the 3 metre synchronized springboard final on Saturday morning will be entering the history books as the first divers competing in this event at an Olympic Games.

Russian pair Vera ILINA and Loulia PAKHALINA will be in strong medal contention after winning the 2000 Sydney World Cup together. PAKHALINA also won this event at the European Championships in Helsinki earlier this year.

Ukrainian partners Ganna SOROKINA and Olena ZHUPINA have looked sharp in training together in the lead up to Saturday morning’s final. They placed third at the European Championships in Helsinki this year and have consistently performed strongly in individual and synchronised diving events. Over the past two years, ZHUPINA took first place at the 1999 European Championships in Istanbul and placed fourth with SOROKINA at this year’s Grand Prix in Southport.

The 1996 Olympic gold medallist in the 3m springboard, China’s FU Mingxia, was an Olympic champion in the 3m individual springboard and will dive with GUO Jingjing. GUO won this event at the World Cup in New Zealand last year, and finished second at the 2000 Sydney World Cup.

German divers Doerte LINDNER and Conny SCHMALFUSS (GER) won the silver together in this event at the European Championships in Helsinki this year. They will be strong competitors in this event.

Four synchronized diving events have been added to the programme and will run as one final of five dives.

Source: SOCOG Olympic News Service