Dubai diving championships: China poised for another clean sweep
Huge gap between leaders and competition on the first day of Dubai diving event
Dubai: China looked destined for an all-too-customary clean sweep of the top positions when their divers picked up three of the four gold medals on offer on the opening day of the second round of the Fina/Midea Diving World Series 2013 at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex on Thursday.
After opening the day winning both the events contested during the morning session in the women’s and men’s 10m synchro platform, China added a third gold in the women’s 3m synchro springboard to maintain their dominance in this discipline.
It was multiple world and Olympic champion Chen Ruolin leading the Chinese march for gold medals when she combined with Huixia Lin to total 353.04 points to win the women’s 10m synchro platform earlier in the morning session.
Canada’s Meaghan Benefeito and Roseline Filion took the silver with a total of 331.44 points, while the Russian pairing of Yulia Koltunova and Natalia Goncharova won the bronze medal with a total of 315.36 points.
And then, in the men’s 10m synchro platform, Yue Lin and Aisen Chen were close to perfection with a total of 490.95 points to secure China a second gold medal on the first day of the three-day competition.
Russia’s Victor Minibaev and Artem Chesakov came in a distant second with a total of 444.12 points, while Cubans Jose Antonio Guerra and Jeinkler Aguirre did just enough to move past Mexico’s Ivan N. Garcia and Adan Zuniga for the bronze medal.
Ahmad Al Falasi, President, UAE Swimming Association (UAESA) was joined by Georgia Fyrigou Consolo from the Fina Technical Committee at the formal opening of the championship later in the evening.
In the women’s 3m synchro springboard, it was once again over to the 2012 London Olympic silver medallist Zi He and Han Wang as the Chinese won gold with a tally of 331.20 points ahead of the Italian combination of Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape (297.90) and Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware from Canada (296.10).
The 3m synchro springboard for men was the last medal to be contested later in the evening and Kai Qin and Chong He were expected to make it four out of four after being classified at the top of the six pairs in the final.
In last weekend’s opening round held at Beijing’s Water Cube, Kai Qin and Chong He had paired in the 3m synchro to win with a total 468.90, besting 2012 Olympic champion Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia and Mexico’s Yahel Castillo and Daniel Islas.
Action will continue at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex on Friday with the 3m springboard semi-finals for men and women held in the morning session and the two finals later in the evening.
