Chinese Divers Earn Both Golds on Opening Day of Wuhan Diving World Cup

Photo Courtesy: Leo Mason/USA Today Sports

The FINA Diving World Cup started well for the host, as Team China grabbed the two gold medals on offer on the opening day in Wuhan on Monday June 4, while Canada, Russia, Ukraine and the USA also earned medals from the two mixed events.

Si Yajie, together with partner Lian Junjie won the mixed 10m synchro platform title with a total score of 353.31, beating Canada’s Caeli McKay / Vincent Riendeau (silver) and Sergey Nazin/Valeriia Belova of Russia (bronze).

“It is a good start for me and for Team China. Junije and I have trained together for three weeks now and we performed our best today,” Si said.

Lian added: “I was feeling good during the competition. Winning the gold in my first ever World Cup was perfect for me.”

In the mixed team event, China’s Qiu Bo/Chen Yiwen collected 406.20 points from six dives to claim the victory. Oleg Kolodiy/Sofiia Lyskun of Ukraine finished second (388.90) and Krysta Palmer/David Dinsmore (USA) came third (374.65).

On day 2, Olympic champions Jack Laugher/Chris Mears of Great Britain were one step away to clinch the men’s 3m synchro springboard title, but they were overturned on the last dive by home favourites Cao Yuan/Xie Siyi.

Budapest 2017 silver medallists Cao/Xie led the first three rounds before Laugher/Mears took the lead due to a poor 5154B, as Cao made a splash entry. Laugher/Mears continued to lead and enjoyed a 10.14 points advantage ahead of the Chinese stars right until the last dive. However, Laugher jumped too far at the end of the springboard and lost the normal height of his start on the 109C, collecting 70.68 for a total of 440.64.

Cao/Xie ended up claiming the gold medal with 448.74 while Mexican pair Jahir Ocampo/Rommel Pachecosecured the bronze with 435.72.

“Our first five dives were very good and we were winning! We were defeating the Big China on home soil! But it was unfortunate that my last dive did not perform to my normal standard. We would probably have won, but unfortunately we did not today. I was just diving as normal before my last dive, but unfortunately I struggled with my last rotation. But overall, I am quite happy with our first five dives. I want to have a good rest tonight and find out what I can learn from today’s performance, and I hope I will not make the same mistake again in the future,” Laugher said.

Read more about the athletes’ reaction on FINA website.

The Diving World Cup results are available here.

The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with FINA. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.

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Thomas A. Small

5 years ago

Congratulations