Diver Maddison Keeney conquers nerves to win 1m springboard world title

DIVER Maddison Keeney has claimed her first gold medal at a world championships in an emotional act of redemption.

Maddison Keeney during the 1m Springboard event in Hungary.

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IT was a win years in the making and which has finally erased the memory of a lost opportunity which has haunted diver Maddison Keeney for two long years.

After a very public and embarrassing flop two years ago saw her squander a chance of world medal success, Maddison Keeney nailed it on Sunday at the Budapest world championships to win her maiden world diving crown.

“It’s something I have been dreaming of for a long time,’’ said Keeney, who suffers from nerves at big events.

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Silver medallist Nadezhda Bazhina of Russia, gold Maddison Keeney of Australia and bronze medallist Elena Bertocchi of Italy after the 1m springboard final.

The 21-year-old Rio Olympian expressed her relief after coming from behind to win the 1m springboard event in Hungary on her final dive in an act of redemption for her 2015 performance.

“It feels incredible, but also very relieving,” Keeney said.

“To be honest, I was relieved as soon as I did my hurdle on the board, because I have a lot of bad memories from two years ago that I want to overwrite.

“And so being able to put a performance on that I could be proud of was the most important thing.

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Maddison Keeney claimed her first world crown in the 1m springboard event.

Keeney said it was a dream come true to win the world title.

“And I was hoping so much that I would finally be able to win this event after so many attempts.”

It was an emotional moment for Keeney who moved from 10th in a field of 12 after the first round to gradually make her way into the gold medal position.

Nailing a forward 2-1/2 somersaults with one twist in her final dive secured her the crown.

“I wanted to redeem myself. I didn’t need to doubt myself. I didn’t need to think about what happened in the past because I knew that all the training, all the hard work I’d done, would pay off,” Keeney said.

Keeney finished with 314.95 points to beat Russian Nadezhda Bazhina by 10.25.

In other results, Melissa Wu and Domonic Bedggood finished seventh in the platform mixed synchro final and Kevin Chavez and Matthew Carter finished 12th in the men’s 3m synchro.