Ukraine Tops European Diving Championships

Kyiv, May 21, 2012. Eindhoven 2012 welcomed Ukrainian swimming team as the winner of most awards at the championships. Ukraine cropped eight medals, including two golds (Kvasha and Prokopchuk), three silvers (teams Fedorova – Pysmenska, Prokopchuk – Potekhina, Fedorova – Bondar), and three bronzes (Kvasha – Prygorov, Bondar – Horshkovozov, Fedorova).

Yulia Prokopchuk became the European champion in 10 meter platform jump, while Illia Kvasha took gold in meter high trampoline jump. Yulia Prokopchuk received 321.55 points while her colleague from Italy Noemi Batki showed the second best result of 315.6 points. German athlete Maria Kurjo took the third spot with 312.65 points.

Illia Kvasha topped 1m trampoline jump with 430.5 points. Russian diver Yevheniy Kuznetsov took the second spot with 412.65 points, while an athlete from France Matthieu Rosset won bronze with 403.95 points.

Curiously, Yulia Prokopchuk and Viktoria Potekhina were awarded the 200^th silver medal in the history of the European Diving Championships (held since 1926). They finished second in women’s 10 meter platform synchro with 310.68 points.

Ukrainian Anna Pysmenska took silver in Eindhoven with 302.1 points in three meter springboard synchronized swimming. Anna Pysmenska was quoted to say: “It was a very close competition, and we are happy with silver. We can now concentrate fully on the Olympic Games [to take place in London on July 27 – August 12, 2012] as we are already qualified.” Italian Tanja Cagnotto won gold in this category.

Ukrainian team in Eindhoven featured nine divers – five male and four female. A total number of 112 participants from 18 nations took part in the competition in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The UK and Russia sent the biggest teams to the competition – 13 members each. Russian team shares the first place in team awards ranking with Ukraine, having also scored eight medals. Russian athletes managed to win one gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in the diving championships on May 15-20.

In 2010 Ukraine obtained third-best team result at the European Swimming, Diving and Synchronized Swimming Championships in Budapest. Russian team won most medals, while Spain took second largest number of awards.