ILIA ZAKHAROV CAME into the Olympics as reigning champion but his Rio 2016 experience will forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
In the men’s 3m springboard semi-final, the Russian’s first dive was solid, his second slightly below-par while his third was exceptionally poor for him.
But it was his fourth attempt that will live long in the memory.
http://vine.co/v/5hQ97jPI6WY
Perhaps he was rattled after the previous effort but no one was expecting the bizarre face-plant which followed.
For his efforts, Zakharov received a score of 0.00 and, rather inevitably, he never quite recovered.
It was always going to be virtually impossible to get back in the top 12 after such a setback and when he needed a big fifth dive, he could only produce a very tentative 56.55.
He improved on his last attempt – racking up a 74.10 – but it wasn’t enough and we will have a new champion for 2016.
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