Water jumpers Lena Henschel and Tina Punzel gave the German team its first medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. The European champion won the bronze medal in synchronized jumping from the three-meter board.

Hentschel and Punzel lost to strong Chinese winners Shi Tingmao and Wang Han as well as Canadian pairings at the Tokyo Aquatics Celentre on Sunday. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, record European champion Patrick Haussing won the only German jumping medal with a bronze in the artificial jump from the three-meter board.

For Dresden-based Berliner Hentschel and Punzel, this is the biggest success of their career so far. To be able to train better with Punzel, 20-year-old Henschel moved exclusively to Dresden. Unlike Hentschel, Punzel was already present in Rio. There the now 25-year-old finished seventh in synchronized jumping from all three. She is also a four-time European champion. He had flirted with Bronze before the Games.

In Japan DSV is represented in jumping in all four individual disciplines as well as three of the four synchronized competitions. The national coach said, “We followed the same preparation schedule as we did before the World Cup in Tokyo. We trained again at night to simulate the time difference. It worked well at that time. We hope that.” We will be successful this time also.” Lutz Bushko explained before the competition.

That’s where the first success lies. “If we manage to hone our abilities in Tokyo as a team, we can win a medal or two,” Bushko said. Flag-bearer Haussing will begin synchronized jumping with Lars Rudiger on a three-meter board on Wednesday.