FINA World Championships, Diving: Chen Ruolin Snares Platform Gold; China Seven-For-Seven

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SHANGHAI, China, July 21. CHEN Ruolin provided China its seventh gold medal in diving at the 2011 FINA World Championships with a victorious effort in the women's 10-meter platform event.

Chen finished the finale with 405.30 points to break into the world title spot for the first time in the event after back-to-back silvers in 2007 and 2009.

"I was defeated by Hu Yadan at the World Cup, and it harmed my confidence," Chen said. "The key to my victory today is consistency. Hu is still young, she needs to take part in more competition to mature. Next I will focus on the London Olympics."

The aforementioned Hu Yadan finished just more than 10 points back of Chen with a silver-winning performance of 394.00 to give China yet another 1-2 medal stand sweep.

"I felt so nervous that I floundered on Dive 2 and 4," Hu said. "I did not think too much before the last dive, just hoped I can dive at normal level. It's a pity that I did not win the gold. Chen Ruolin is more experienced than me."

Mexico's Paula Espinosa, the defending champion, settled for bronze with a tally of 377.15 points. Canada's Meaghan Benfeito nearly made the podium with a fourth-place 375.50, while USA's Brittany Viola took 10th overall with 308.05 points.

In men's three-meter springboard semifinal action, China's He Chong and Qin Kai were well ahead of the pack. He edged Qin for the top seed, 523.50 to 523.25. He is looking to defend his world title gained in 2009 in Rome, and keep China's gold-medal sweep hopes alive.

"I made some changes on dive 5 (407C)," He said. "My diving in preliminary and semifinal was not good enough, so I will try to fit in later on. Maybe I cared about difficulty at first but now I hope I can get higher score with lower degree of difficulty."

Russia's Ilya Zakharov qualified a distant third with 470.50 points, while Mexico's Julian Sanchez (467.15) and USA's Troy Dumais (466.80) earned fourth and fifth seeds. Dumais is the reigning silver medalist in the event.

"Today, I did really good job," Dumais said. "I am getting better and better. I will enjoy the water and board in tomorrow's final. I like diving very much. It's not my career, but my hobby. I like competing and try to be the best."

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