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Humiliating for reigning Olympic champion diver after he scores 0.00 for disastrous face-plant

Ilia Zakharov is heading home after inexplicable moment during the men’s diving.

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.
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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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