![\"Minxia](\"\/media\/Minxia_Wu_and_Jingjing_Guo_(CHN).jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BARCELONA, Spain, July 20. CHINA won two more golds in synchronized diving to end the diving championships with a total of 12 (4 gold \u2013 4 silver \u2013 4 bronze) to more than double Russia's medal take of 6 (2-2-2). Australia finished third with 4 medals.<\/p>\n
The women's 3m synchronized springboard was dominated by Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing from the preliminary round. Sydney Olympic winners Julia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina, of Russia, were close – just 7 points behind – after the first round. Even this small difference was due to a mistake in the 3-1\/2 forward pike. After discussing it with their coach, they decided to change this dive to one involving less risk.<\/p>\n
Everyone else was fighting for third place in the final, as the difference between the top two and the rest was evident. In round one, the Russians had the best score but not by much (56.40-56.20).<\/p>\n
In the second round the Chinese moved ahead, and by the fourth they were out of reach with a 20 point lead.<\/p>\n
Pakhalina and Ilyina did not gain from a change in their program, gaining 5.19 over the earlier round with 67.50, but the Chinese got 79.20. They were relaxed in their final dive and got four 10s for a big score of 86.40 to end with 357.30, 36.06 ahead of the Russian duo.<\/p>\n
Cassandra Cardinell (Loudonville, NY) and Sara Hildebrand (St. Paul, Minn.) got off to a strong start for the USA, sitting in third place after prelims. In finals, the two had a tougher time staying synchronized on their dives, finishing in eighth place with a score of 259.38. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis was really the first big international competition we\u2019ve competed in together,\u201d Cardinell said. \u201cWe were ready, we were just a little off today. It happens sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men's synchronized platform was a come from behind for Australia's Matthew Helm and Robert Newbery. The Australians' free routines had a 0.6 advantage in degree of difficulty (DD) and helped them in the quest for the gold.<\/p>\n
It was in the fourth round that the Aussies moved into the lead with their 3-1\/2 back pike with a 3.6 DD for 88.56, and the Chinese fell to third place with the same dive with only 70.20 points. This allowed the Ukrainian team of Roman Volodkov and Anton Zakharov to move into second.<\/p>\n
The USA's Troy and Justin Dumais (Ventura, Calif.), competing in their second synchro event of the week, advanced to the finals after taking eighth in prelims. The duo moved as high as fifth after their third dive before finishing in seventh place with 318.18 points.<\/p>\n
WOMEN 3m Synchro Diving FINAL<\/p>\n
Rank\tAthletes\t Country\tYOB\tTotal
\n1\tWU Mingxia\t CHN\t85\t357.30
\n \tGUO Jingjing\t CHN\t81\t <\/p>\n
2\tPAKHALINA Julia\t RUS\t77\t321.24
\n \tILYINA Vera\t RUS\t74\t <\/p>\n
3\tESPINOSA Paola\t MEX\t86\t299.64
\n \tSANCHEZ Laura\t MEX\t85\t <\/p>\n
4\tSCHMALFUSS Conny\tGER\t75\t295.50
\n \tKOTZIAN Ditte\t GER\t79\t <\/p>\n
5\tGERRARD Tandi\t GBR\t78\t293.55
\n \tSMITH Jane\t GBR\t75\t <\/p>\n
6\tDACKIW Lynda\t AUS\t80\t291.24
\n \tMICHELL Chantelle\tAUS\t77\t <\/p>\n
7\tISCHENKO Kristina UKR\t87\t287.04
\n \tFEDOROVA UKR\t UKR\t \t <\/p>\n
8\tHILDEBRAND Sara\t\tUSA\t79 259.38
\n \tCARDINELL Cassandra\tUSA 82\t \t <\/p>\n
MEN 10m Synchro Diving FINAL<\/p>\n
Rank\tAthletes\t Country\tYOB\tTotal
\n1\tHELM Mathew\t AUS\t80\t384.60
\n \tNEWBERY Robert\t AUS\t79\t <\/p>\n
2\tVOLODKOV Roman\t UKR\t73\t372.60
\n \tZAKHAROV Anton\t UKR\t86\t <\/p>\n
3\tTIAN Liang\t CHN\t79\t367.14
\n \tHU Jia\t CHN\t83\t <\/p>\n
4\tWATERFIELD Peter\tGBR\t81\t356.94
\n \tTAYLOR Leon\t GBR\t77\t <\/p>\n
5\tMARTINEZ Jorge\t MEX\t79\t322.74
\n \tPEREZ Francisco\t MEX\t76\t <\/p>\n
6\tBETANCOURT Jorge\tCUB\t81\t321.36
\n \tFORNARIS Erick\t CUB\t79\t <\/p>\n
7\tDUMAIS Troy\t USA\t80\t318.18
\n \tDUMAIS Justin\t USA\t78\t <\/p>\n
8\tGALPERIN Gleb\t RUS\t85\t298.62
\n \tLUKASHIN Igor\t RUS\t77\t <\/p>\n
(Courtesy: Fina & USA Diving)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BARCELONA, Spain, July 20. CHINA won two more golds in synchronized diving to end the diving championships with a total of 12 (4 gold \u2013 4 silver \u2013 4 bronze)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n