DIVING: Australia’s Melissa Wu is set to compete at her fifth World Aquatics Championships after being named in a 10-strong squad for this year’s competition in Budapest, Hungary.

Rio Olympians Domonic Bedggood and Maddison Keeney will contest five events in Budapest, while 16-year-old South Australian Matthew Carter will make his senior World Championships debut, competing in the 3-metre synchro.

Wu was in career-best form at last week’s Australian Open in Sydney, and will contest three events in Budapest – the individual, synchro and mixed synchro platform events.

“I'm very excited to be going to another World Championships and to be competing in three events,” Wu said.

“I'm also looking forward to going to Budapest, as it will be my first time there and I've heard that the pool and facilities are amazing.

“I'm still loving diving at the moment and I'm really enjoying training and competing. I've changed my training up a bit lately to better manage my injuries and introduce a bit more variety and it's given me a fresh outlook on diving and I'm really excited for what this year will bring.”

It’s been a long journey for 25-year-old Wu since making her World Championship debut as a 14-year-old in Melbourne in 2007. She won a silver medal with Briony Cole in the women’s platform synchro, and finished 11th in the individual event.

“My first world champs was a little bit disappointing because I didn't get the results I was hoping for,” she said.

“But it was still a great opportunity to compete at one of the biggest competitions and to be able to learn a lot from it.”

Rio teammates James Connor, Kevin Chavez, Anabelle Smith and Esther Qin have all been named, while Declan Stacey, in his first year of competitive diving after switching from gymnastics, will make his Championships debut in the 10 metre and 10 metre synchro.

Adelaide’s Taneka Kovchenko will compete with Wu in the platform synchro and individual events in Budapest.

Selectors picked the squad by adding the scores from every round of each event last week, a formula that meant two national title winners, Esther Qin in the women’s 3-metres and Matthew Carter in the men’s 3-metres, will not compete in those events at the World Championships

Qin will contest the 1-metre event.

Bedggood, who returned one of the best performances of his career in last week’s platform final, will contest the individual platform, the platform synchro, the mixed platform synchro and the mixed springboard synchro in August.

Keeney and Smith will contest their Olympic bronze medal event, the 3-metre synchro, as well as lining up against each other in the 3-metre individual.

Keeney, who celebrated her 21st birthday last week, will also dive with Bedggood in the mixed 3-metre synchro, and will also contest the 1-metre springboard.

Chavez will dive in the 1-metre, 3-metre and 3 metre synchro.

Ross Solly
Diving australia