Seven gold in hands, China continues winning streak in diving

Source: Xinhua| 2019-07-15 23:16:45|Editor: Li Xia

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(SP)SOUTH KOREA-GWANGJU-FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS-MEN'S 10M SYNCHRO PLATFORM FINAL

Gold medalists Cao Yuan (R)/Chen Aisen of China pose for photos after winning the men's 10m synchro platform final of diving event at FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, on July 15, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Jingqiang)

GWANGJU, South Korea, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese divers kept unbeaten streak at the Gwangju FINA World Championships as Shi Tingmao/Wang Han and Cao Yuan/Chen Aisen won two more synchro titles.

Cao Yuan became the first double winner in Gwangju as he and two-time Olympic champion Chen Aisen dominated the men's 10m platform final and brought China diving seventh title.

Cao, 2012 London Olympic champion and bronzed medalist in 2013 worlds, moved to 3m springboard since then and won the 3m champion in 2016 Rio Olympic Games. In Gwangju, he claimed 3m synchro with Xie Siyi two days ago and then built up his reputation on the synchro platform, again.

Started from second place in the first round, Cao/Chen led the field from the second dive and never looked back by keeping high poise in their four free attempts, all in 90+ points. Their fourth dive 207B (Backward 3 1/2 somersault pike) collected as high as 97.20 and snatched the gold in 486.93.

"I competed in the synchro springboard and now synchro platform at the worlds. I need to get used to different events, different partners and different feeling in the air. I made mistakes in the entry tonight and did not come up to my goal -- to dive as perfect as possible," said Cao who will compete 3m springboard on July 17.

"We talked about our target before the final that we hoped to get points over 500+. We were very close to that. So next time we should set our goal higher than that, and therefore we may have better results. It was the best performance I did this year. We were lucky that we made the team through our three-leg national Olympic trials," Chen Aisend said.

Russian pair Viktor Minibaev/Aleksandr Bondar also had a good performance in the final and finished in 444.60, 42.33 behind the Chinese divers. Thomas Daley/Mattew Lee settled for the third place at 425.91.