DIVING: Australian divers Samantha Mills and Esther Qin have once again finished second behind China at a diving World Series event, but the gap is closing.
Zi He and Han Wang won gold in the 3-metre synchro in Medida, Mexico, with the Australians just 11.10 points behind.
Last weekend in Canada the gap between the two teams was 14.70.
“We’re not that far behind the Chinese,” Mills said.
“The more training we do together the closer we’ll get. We’ll go back home for three weeks and then I’ll go to Sydney and train with Esther for a couple of weeks before Worlds.”
The outdoor pool provided challenging conditions for the divers, with a fluky breeze causing problems for some of the competitors.
The Australians rarely train at outdoor pools, but Qin says they adapted well.
“It was hard, but you try not to think about it,” she said.
“The Rio venue is outdoors, so it would be ideal to train in the outdoors. The new Gold Coast venue is outdoors.”
Most of the top synchro teams in the world have been competing at the World Series in Canada and Mexico.
Although they’ve been competing together for less than 12 months, and living in different Australian cities, Mills and Qin have chalked up three silver medals against top-class competition.
They’ve already talked about one of the divers relocating before Rio, but the immediate focus is on Kazan.
“I think we’ll go in their pretty confident, knowing we’ve beaten most of the best teams in the world,” Mills said.
“We’re feeling more relaxed and less nervous with every competition.”
While Perth teenager Maddison Keeney added a bronze medal to Australia’s collection, finishing third behind Chinese divers Zi He and Han Wang in the 3-metre springboard.
Fellow Australian Esther Qin finished sixth.
Keeney, who turned 19 last week, left her most difficult, but potentially highest scoring, dive to last.
And while it wasn’t perfect, the degree of difficulty gave Keeney a big enough final score to finish third, just three points behind silver medalist Wang.
The Australian team will return home next week to prepare for the World Championships in Kazan, Russia, in July.
ROSS SOLLY FOR DIVING AUSTRALIA