Mexican diver gets no points for dive described as ‘terrible’ by BBC pundit after failed appeal in Olympic 3m springboard qualifying

Mexican diver Aranza Vazquez saw her Olympic dream turn into a nightmare after a disastrous effort in the 3-metre springboard event.

Vazquez, 21, had a good start to Thursday’s action as she placed seventh after her third dive and was on course to reach tomorrow’s 3m springboard final.

However, on her fourth dive of the day, she attempted a couple of back flips at a difficulty level of 3.0, but missed everything after misjudging her takeoff.

Upon hitting the water, Vazquez landed in an unnatural position on his back, which appeared to be an extremely painful impact with the pool.

Vazquez immediately raised her hand in the air after exiting the water, which is diving code for wanting to talk to the referee.

She then addressed the officer, claiming she had been distracted.

The referee then spoke to his assistant, before they decided that his appeal would be dismissed after a lengthy discussion.

This means that Vazquez, who also competed at the last Olympics in Tokyo, received a disastrous score of 0.0, ruining his hopes of qualifying for the final.

The 21-year-old was left heartbroken and was later seen in tears being consoled by her coach, before leaving the backstage area of ​​the Olympics venue.

Reacting to the dive on BBC commentary, expert and former diver Leon Taylor said: “Disastrous dive, you could tell it was going to happen.

“She raises her hand, which means she wants to speak to the referee. If the referee considers the complaint to be justified, he will allow the match to be restarted.

“Otherwise, if he doesn’t think it’s valid, a bit like false starts in athletics, you can run under protest but in diving, that doesn’t exist.”

Referring to her “terrible” dive and the judges’ decision to dismiss her appeal, Taylor added: “She has a terrible takeoff. The problem is, when you do a dive like that, it counts.”

“If you want to take a chance, you can say that something happened in the crowd that discouraged me.

“I don’t know what the complaint is, so I can’t really comment on its validity. I didn’t see any flashes but I’m not on the diving board.”

“It’s not really controversial, I think it’s a good decision.”

Commonwealth silver medallist and former diver Tonia Couch added on the BBC: “It’s a real shame for her. It’s really tough.”

If the referee had ruled that her complaints were justified, Vazquez would have been allowed to perform her dive again.

This happened at the 2012 London Olympics, when Tom Daley was allowed to dive again after lightning appeared to strike as he was about to dive, with officials believing it had distracted him.

But, unfortunately for Vazquez, she was not so lucky and fans expressed their sympathy for the Mexican on social media.

One said: “I feel sorry for Aranza Vazquez, even though she showed great promise, but she seems to have slipped off the springboard at the last minute. I hope she recovers from her disappointment soon!”

Another added: “It’s very sad for the Mexican… with this mistake she is out of the final…”, before another fan joked: “Dramatic and sad!! Zero for Ara Vazquez. This will cost her her ticket to the final!!!”