Picture Credit: Twitter
Timo Barthel, a German diver and Tokyo 2020 Olympic participant has won a gold medal in the men's 10m platform event at the European Games 2023 in Krakow, Poland. With his victory, he also secured a second diving quota for Germany for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Barthel, who finished 17th in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics, had a roller-coaster final as he started in the lead but then dropped to fifth place after a poor third dive. However, he managed to recover and climb back to the top with his final dive and won the gold medal right at death.
Barthel's total score was 435.40 points, enough to edge out his main rival 18-year-old Robbie Lee, who finished second with 413.20 points. Lee, who won the bronze medal at the 2022 Junior World Championships won the silver on his senior debut and the bronze medal went to Italy's Riccardo Giovannini, who scored 411.20 points.
“It’s unbelievable I’m just speechless. Last year I won the preliminary too and then I did a bad job in the final, so finally I got the gold medal. It’s just amazing and now we have the place for Germany, but it’s just for Germany, not my place, so I have to take it next year at the German nationals and the qualification,” the German said after his win.
Barthel's gold medal was the second one for Germany in diving at the European Games 2023 after Moritz Linus Wesemann won the men's 3m springboard event and also earned a Paris 2024 quota for Germany with his win.
