(Olympics) Diver reaches 2nd straight men’s springboard final

Diving medal hopeful Woo Haram qualified for his second straight Olympic final in the men’s 3-meter springboard event Wednesday.

Woo finished ninth among 18 divers in the semifinal with 432.00 points at the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, as the top-dozen divers advanced to the final scheduled for Thursday.

Fellow South Korean diver, Yi Jae-gyeong, will not join Woo in the final, after ranking 17th in the semifinal with 366.50 points.

Woo finished fourth in the 3m springboard at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the best performance by a South Korean diver at a Summer Games.

Woo also reached the final in the 10m platform event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and finished in 11th.

The three medalists from Tokyo finished 1-2-3 in the semifinal, with the silver medalist Wang Zongyuan of China leading the way at 537.85 points, followed by Xie Siyi, the defending champion from China, at 505.85 points. Jack Laugher of Britain was third with 467.05 points.

The two Chinese divers are once again expected to duke it out for the gold, leaving Laugher and others to vie for bronze.

In Tokyo, Xie finished over 40 points ahead of Laugher, while Woo was about 36 points back of Laugher for fourth place.

Woo said Wednesday he fully expected to qualify for the final.

“Unlike in Rio, my goal here isn’t just to reach the final,” Woo said. “The preliminary and the semifinal were an opportunity to prepare myself for the final.”

Woo said his jumps for the final in France won’t be as difficult as the ones he had performed in Tokyo.

“Those jumps will be too tough on my body to pull off,” he said. “I will try to be steady with my dives instead.”

Woo has been plagued by back issues in recent years, and he said his back acted up again about three weeks ago.

“Luckily, it wasn’t that serious, and I was able to recover quickly,” Woo said. “It won’t have any impact on my performance whatsoever.”