Mexican girl dares to challenge domination by Chinese divers

Dubai: While China had a merry two days at the magnificent Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex, winning all eight gold medals on offer at the Fina/Midea World Diving Series here last weekend, there was one girl who dared to challenge the Chinese might — Paola Espinosa.

The petite Mexican was the only diver who came within a whisker of marring the Chinese domination when she went head-to-head against world champion Ruolin Chen in the women's 10m platform final on Friday.

Espinosa had fantastic third and fourth visits to the platform, with efforts of 84.15 and 81.60 in a total of 315.30 points, compared to the 76.80 and 79.20 for a total of 315.70 of her Chinese competitor.

Final effort

However, the Chinese experience showed as Ruolin scored 80 points in her fifth and final dive and Espinosa had an effort of 76.80 to miss out on upstaging the Chinese by a mere 3.60 points. "There is very little I can do except for trying my best each time I go for a jump. My focus is always to ensure I give my best and then wait for the results. I tried to focus completely today and it nearly paid off. It was close, and yet it was a way too far as she took me off with that last dive," Espinosa said.

Other than this single challenge that nearly bore fruit, China emphatically dominated all the way as their divers took all eight gold medals during the two days of competition.