Matteo Santoro and Chiara Pellacani (ITA) made history on Wednesday (30 July) at the World Aquatics Championships – Singapore 2025 by winning Italy’s first-ever world title in the mixed 3m synchronised springboard. Their gold marks the nation’s first diving world championship title in a decade, following Tania Cagnotto’s win in the women’s 1m springboard in 2015.

Trailing China’s Cheng Zilong and Li Yajie after the third round, the Italian duo surged ahead in the fourth when the Chinese pair faltered. Holding their nerve through the final dive, Santoro and Pellacani closed out with a score of 308.13 to edge out Australia’s Maddison Keeney and Cassiel Rousseau (307.26). China settled for bronze with 305.70.

“We worked hard for this. We were trying to keep calm during all the dives and we’re very happy that we made it,” said Pellacani. “I couldn’t believe it, we just started screaming because it was crazy to see on the board that we were first. It’s just emotions that are hard to describe.”

The Italians remained focused even as the leaderboard shifted. “We didn’t know that they made mistakes, because we weren’t watching the competition. We knew that we were doing great, so we were just trying to keep doing the same thing as in practice,” Pellacani said.

“The heart was beating really fast and it was a lot of emotions, but we were able to keep calm and do a great dive, so we’re very happy for this,” she added. “I hope that a lot of people see it, so that more diving can start diving and just fall in love with the sport, as we did.”

Santoro credited their long-standing bond for the victory. “We’re so happy. I didn’t expect it. I was hoping for this, but I didn’t expect to take the gold and to beat the Chinese pair. I have no words,” he said. “We cried because there’s so many emotions and we didn’t understand anything.”

In earlier action, Singapore’s Ainslee Kwang posted a personal best of 285 points in the women’s 10m platform preliminaries, placing 13th to qualify for Thursday’s semi-finals. Diving continues on 31 July with the men’s 3m springboard preliminaries, followed by the women’s 10m platform semis and final.