Uhahram·Lee Jaekyung, Both Advance to Men's 3m Diving Semifinals [Paris Olympics]

Woo Haram (26, Korea Sports Promotion Foundation) and Lee Jae-kyung (24, Incheon Metropolitan City Sports Council) advanced to the semifinals of the men's 3m springboard diving event at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

On the 6th (Korean time), Woo Haram ranked 12th out of 25 competitors with a total score of 389.10 points from six dives in the men's 3m springboard preliminaries held at the Aquatic Center in Paris, France. Lee Jae-kyung also secured a spot in the semifinals by ranking 16th with a total score of 381.40 points. Both divers earned the right to advance as they were among the top 18.

They entered the water wearing swimsuits adorned with the Taegeuk pattern and successfully passed the first stage. The men's 3m springboard semifinals will be held at 5 p.m. on the 7th.

If they place within the top 12 in the semifinals, they will achieve the historic feat of "both Korean divers advancing to the Olympic individual event finals" for the first time. They will then compete for medals in the finals scheduled for 10 p.m. on the 8th.

On the 6th (local time), Woo Haram of Korea competed in the men's 3m springboard diving preliminaries at the Aquatic Center in Paris, France, for the 2024 Paris Olympics. [Image source=Yonhap News]

In the preliminaries, Woo Haram performed a forward dive with a tucked position, completing four and a half rotations with a difficulty rating of 3.8 (109C) in the third dive, earning 76.00 points and moving up from 13th to 8th place. Although he made a mistake during the entry in the fourth dive, scoring only 52.50 points, he maintained stable performances afterward and finished the preliminaries in 12th place.

Lee Jae-kyung, who was in 6th place after the first three dives, dropped to 13th after scoring 43.75 points on the fourth dive?a reverse dive with three and a half rotations (307C)?causing his ranking to fall gradually. However, his strong early performance secured his ticket to the semifinals.

On the 6th (local time), Lee Jae-kyung of Korea competed in the men's 3m springboard diving preliminary round at the Aquatic Center in Paris, France, for the 2024 Paris Olympics. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Korea’s diving star Woo Haram is making his third consecutive Olympic appearance, having competed in Rio de Janeiro 2016 and the 2020 Tokyo Games held in 2021. At Rio 2016, Woo became the first Korean diver to reach an Olympic final, finishing 11th in the men's 10m platform event.

At the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, he achieved Korea’s best-ever diving result by finishing 4th in the men's 3m springboard. In his third Olympic appearance, he is aiming to win a medal.