Ukrainian Divers Sereda and Hrytsenko Finish Fifth at the Season's First Diving World Cup

The performance marked the debut of Oleksii Sereda and Mark Hrytsenko's duo on the international stage.

Team Ukraine continues its campaign at the Diving World Cup, running April 3-7 in Guadalajara, Mexico. On the third competition day, the youngest-ever European champion, Oleksii Sereda, teamed up with Mark Hrytsenko to represent Ukraine in the 10m synchronized event. The duo finished fifth in the final.

Overall, Team Ukraine arrived at the stage with a squad of six athletes — Kirill Boliukh, Kseniia Bailo, Oleksii Sereda, Mark Hrytsenko, Sofiia Lyskun, and Stanislav Oliferchyk. In the mixed 3m and 10m platform team event, the national team finished ninth out of ten teams. In individual competition, meanwhile, Sereda and Hrytsenko advanced to the final, qualifying fourth and eighth, respectively.

How Sereda and Hrytsenko Performed in the Final

• Nine pairs competed in the synchronized diving final, each performing six dives. After the first two rounds, featuring the lowest-difficulty dives, Sereda and Hrytsenko were in second place.

• At the midpoint of the final, the Ukrainians were in fifth. A dive with a 3.2 degree of difficulty, for which the Ukrainians scored 70.08 points, cost them three spots in the overall standings. The duo's highest score — 76.68 points — came on their final, sixth dive (3.6 degree of difficulty).

• In the end, the 'yellow-and-blues' scored 372.72 points, finishing fifth, trailing the winners, China's representatives, by 76.77 points.

Diving World Cup. Synchronized Diving. 10m Platform. Men

1. China — 449.49 points

2. Mexico — 435.45

3. Neutral Athletes — 400.32

4. United States — 388.71

5. Ukraine — 372.72

The next event at the world championship featuring Ukrainians will be the men's 3m synchronized springboard final, starting April 6 at 19:00 Kyiv time. Ukraine will be represented by Kirill Boliukh and Stanislav Oliferchyk.