Nathan Zsombor-Murray of Canada in action.ANTONIO BRONIC/Reuters
Canada’s Nathan Zsombor-Murray put together an impressive six-dive performance in the preliminary round of the men’s 10-metre platform at the Tokyo Olympics Friday to punch his ticket to the semifinal.
Fellow Canadian Rylan Wiens of Pike Lake, Sask., missed the semifinal by the smallest of margins.
The 18-year-old Zsombor-Murray was solid on five of his six preliminary-round dives and even managed to score the highest point total in the second round of dives (96.20) with his forward 4 1/2 somersaults in tuck position — a degree of difficulty of 3.7.
The diver from Pointe Claire, Que., who placed fifth at the World Cup in May — also at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre — totalled 443.85 points to qualify in fifth position.
Earlier in the Games, Zsombor-Murray and partner Vincent Riendeau came in fifth in the 10-metre synchronized platform.
Wiens, 19, a bronze medallist in May in Tokyo, started off nervously, then recovered. But his 366.70 points put him in 19th place, one-tenth of a point behind 18th-place Kim Yeongtaek of South Korea and the final spot in the semifinal.
China’s Yang Jian, the world champion in 2019, topped the preliminary round. He finished with 546.90 points and capped off his day with a forward 4 1/2 somersaults in pike position for 102.50 points.
He will try to secure a seventh gold medal in eight events for his country on Saturday. The only Olympic title that was not won by a Chinese diver was the 10-metre men’s synchro.
Yang beat teammate Cao Yuan, gold medallist in Rio on the three-metre springboard, and Russian Aleksandr Bondar.
Eighteen of the 29 competitors advanced to the semifinal scheduled for Saturday morning in Tokyo. The final will follow in the afternoon.
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