Just missing the sensation: The only 18-year-old Jette Müller jumps off the 1-meter board at the European Swimming Championships in Rome - and narrowly misses out on a medal there. All in all, the water jumpers are "a bit wormy".
Three finals, no medal: The German water jumpers made a false start at the European Swimming Championships in Rome. "There seems to be a bit of a worm in it," said national coach Lutz Buschkow, while tears flowed from high diver Elena Wassen. The 21-year-old lost the planned first medal in mixed synchronized jumping with Lou Massenberg with two mistakes.
"My first two freestyle jumps weren't exactly the best," said the Berliner, who was one of the favorites with her teammate when she was fourth in the World Championships: "Then we'll be missing the points in the end." After the two compulsory jumps, the duo was still in the lead, but then they dropped out of the medal ranks, bronze was 11.7 points away.
"It was a stupid ending for all of us," said Massenberg, "of course, fourth place always hurts." Wassen failed with the three-and-a-half dolphin somersault, "her neuralgic leap," as Buschkow noted - and also with the subsequent three-and-a-half forward somersault. "It's a normal rating, and we'll easily get a medal," said Buschkow and diagnosed: "The self-confidence is not that great." Because of many corona infections in the team, the preparation for the European Championship did not go as desired.
On the other hand, the national coach was satisfied with the European Championship debutant Jette Müller, who also finished fourth in the final from the 1-meter board: "She jumped very stable." The 18-year-old from Rostock, on the other hand, was annoyed: "Fourth place is just ungrateful, there was definitely more in it."
In the end, 11.6 points were missing for a medal. Only at the World Cup six weeks ago did Müller celebrate her debut in the adult category and immediately took seventh place as the third-best European. This time the teenager was narrowly beaten by two Italians and a Swede.
