Dubai: The world’s best divers will begin arriving in Dubai early next week after the first round of the FINA/NVC Diving World Series is held this weekend in Beijing.

Among them will be three of the world’s diving superstars, China’s Wu Minxia, He Zi and Chen Ruolin. Between them they have won nine Olympic gold medals, 16 World Championship crowns and the title of FINA Female Diver of the Year in 2010 (Chen), 2011 and 2012 (Wu) and 2013 (He).

Wu Minxia. 28, became China’s top female three-metre diver after the retirement of multiple world and Olympic champion and the ‘Princess of Diving’, Guo Jingjing, in 2008.

She cemented her status at the 2012 London Olympic Games as one of the best divers in the history of the sport by being the first woman to win the gold medal in a diving event at three consecutive Olympic Games in the three-metre synchronised springboard.

She also won gold in the three-metre springboard in London to take her Olympic tally from three appearances at the Games to four gold, one silver and one bronze.

Wu’s phenomenal FINA World Championships success story began in 2001 when she took her first gold in the 3m synchro, a result she repeated in 2003, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. She also won three-metre individual world championship gold in 2011.

Twenty-three-year-old He Zi took her first World Championship title at 16 in the one-metre springboard at the 2007 FINA World Championships in Melbourne. However, she had to wait until 2011 to add to that title, when she won gold in the three-metre synchronised springboard event at the World Championships in Shanghai with Wu.

The pair then went on to win Olympic gold in London in 2012, where He also took the silver behind Wu in the three metre event. He then established herself as Wu’s heir apparent by taking gold in both the one metre and three metre springboard at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona.

Chen Roulin, meanwhile, is the queen of the 10m platform, winning gold in both the individual and synchronised events at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, and 2011 World Championships. She also won gold in the 10m synchro at the 2007, 2009 and 2013 World Championships. In a surprise result which again demonstrates the incredible depth of talent in Chinese diving, she relinquished her World Championship title to team mate Si Yajie in Barcelona last year, taking the silver.

The 2014 FINA/NVC Diving World Series event consists of six legs and kicks off in Beijing on March 14-16, then travels to Dubai, London, Moscow, Windsor (Canada) before the last leg in Monterrey (Mexico) on June 6-8. Divers compete for prize money and points at each of the six events, in the four categories of three-metre springboard and 10-metre platform in both solo and synchronised diving.

The event runs over three days, starting with the 10m platform synchro finals on Thursday, March 20 from 10-12 noon, followed by the opening ceremony at 5pm and 3m springboard synchro finals from 6-8pm.

Friday’s 3-metre individual springboard semi finals session runs from 10-12noon, with the finals from 5-7pm. The final day of competition on Saturday, March 22 sees the 10m platform semi finals from 10-12noon, followed by the finals from 5-7pm.

Tickets to catch all the action at the FINA/NVC Diving World Series will be available at the door at the Hamdan Sports Complex on the Dubai Bypass Road. Tickets are Dh40 per day for general entry, and children under 12 are free.