Singapore 2025: Italy’s Pellacani signs off with another diving bronze
Chiara Pellacani earned a third medal at the World Aquatics Championships 2025 as she claimed women’s 3m springboard bronze in dramatic fashion on the penultimate day of diving.
The 22-year-old moved into a podium position thanks to her final dive in a contest where China’s Olympic champion Yiwen Chen and Jia Chen, winners of the 3m synchro five days earlier, waged their own private battle for gold, with the former prevailing to claim this title for a third time.
Pellacani – who won her first individual world medal by finishing third in the 1m springboard and then claimed her country’s first diving world gold since 2015 partnering Matteo Santoro in the mixed 3m synchro – was in fourth place for the majority of the contest before holding her nerve to move up one place with a final dive that earned her 61.50.
While that was her lowest score of the five, it was sufficient to move ahead of the Australian who denied China’s women a clean sweep of individual golds in diving by winning the 1m springboard title, Maddison Keeney.
Having reclaimed third place with a superb penultimate effort scoring 74.40, Keeney finished sixth after earning only 44.20 with her last dive.
Pellacani, who won European 1m springboard gold at Antalya in May, told World Aquatics: “I’m very happy because this was my goal – to get a medal in this event. After finishing fourth at the last Olympics in Paris we worked really hard for this.
“I’m really happy with the entire event. My goal was to win some medals, and we even won gold—which we didn’t expect! It was a great surprise, and I’m very happy about it.”
Reflecting on her rise from seventh place in the first round, she added: “I usually start off slow in the first round, but I think the most important thing is to stay consistent. That’s what I did during prelims, semi-finals and finals.
“Right now I’ll take a short break, then go back to Miami to continue my studies – I’m graduating in December. After that I’ll keep working towards the 2028 Olympics. There are still some things that I have to improve in my diving. For example, my entries can be better. So, I will go back home, start working again in those areas.”
Yiwen Chen, 26, whose lowest score was 72.00 and who finished with scores of 83.70 and 81.00, won with a total of 389.70 as her 20-yer-old syncho partner took silver on 356.40.
Pellacani’s final total of 323.20 kept her ahead of Germany’s Lena Hentschel, who moved from seventh to fourth with her final effort of 65.10.
Switzerland’s European champion Michelle Heimberg was eighth, two places ahead of Pellacani’s 20-year-old team-mate Elisa Pizzini.
The diving programme concludes tomorrow with the men’s 10m platform.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
The post Singapore 2025: Italy’s Pellacani signs off with another diving bronze first appeared on European Aquatics®.