Olympic bronze medalist Lena Hentschel clearly missed a medal with her new partner Jana Lisa Rother in the synchronized final of the 3m board at the World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka. Timo Barthel and Jaden Eikermann also went away empty-handed.
European tower champion Barthel from Halle (Saale) finished ninth with the Aachener Eikermann in the synchronized final of the 10 m tower with 364.80 points. On Saturday, the 2022 World Cup third-place finisher and Lars Rüdiger (Berlin) finished tenth from the 3m board as Germany’s biggest hope for a medal. Almost 70 points were missing for bronze this time. The seventh gold in the seventh competition in the prefectural pool for China was won by Lian Junjie and Yang Hao with 477.75 points ahead of the duos from Ukraine and Mexico.
Hentschel and Rother also far from the podium
The 22-year-old, who won bronze in Tokyo in 2021 together with Tina Punzel, who has since retired, took ninth place with Rother, who made her World Cup debut three years her senior, with 272.67 points. The Berlin duo was separated from bronze by 13.32 points.
China also won the title here: Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen received 341.94 points from the adjudicators. Silver went to Great Britain ahead of Italy. The German water jumpers have so far come away empty-handed at the World Cup, with a total of two sixth, one ninth and three tenth places.
DSV threatens a medalless World Cup
After seven out of 13 decisions, the German Swimming Association (DSV) has two sixth, two ninth and three tenth places. The first world championship without a medal since 2015 is imminent. A change is imminent: after record European champion Patrick Hausding, six-time European champion Tina Punzel also ended her career at the beginning of the year. “Of course we won’t stick our heads in the sand,” said the new national coach Christoph Bohm: “Everyone knew it would be difficult.”
Bohm succeeded Lutz Buschkow, who had been a successful coach for many years. After 20 years, he was released without notice by the German Swimming Association (DSV) because of serious allegations of dealing with sexual abuse against Jan Hempel. At the end of the year, both parties meet again before the labor court. In an ARD documentary, Hempel made sexualised violence public in the DSV. He criticized a “culture of looking the other way” in the DSV.