Golden start for China's divers

Dubai: China as expected, dominated the opening day of the 2012 Fina/Midea Diving World Series winning both gold medals at the end of the first two events at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex here yesterday.

World champion He Chong got off to a slow start but did enough to win gold in the men's 3m Springboard, while the Chinese pair of Wu Minxia and He Zi combined to win the gold medal in the women's 3m Synchro Springboard.

Chong showed why he is the best in the business despite starting off with a score of 75.0 points in his opening jump. As the competition progressed, Chong went on improving as he notched a total of 522.25 points for the top spot.

Challenging the Chinese dominance was Russia's Illya Zakharov who came up with a fifth dive for a score of 93.60 points to pick up the silver with a total of 496.30 points. Endwith the bronze medal was China's Qin Kai, who also had a best jump in the fifth round for a high score of 93.10 and a total of 481.30 points at the end of his six jumps.

The 25-year-old world champion Chong has been one of the forces in the men's 3m Springboard having persistently struck gold since the Fina World Championships in Rome in 2009. Zakharov has always ended up playing second fiddle to the Chinese champion taking the silver in London earlier this year.

In the women's competition, there was no such hitch as reigning World champion Wu combined with He for a total of 329.40 from their five dives to finish well clear of silver medallists Christina Loukas and Kassidy Cook who had a total of 297.72, while the duo of Anna Pysmenska and Olena Fedorova from Ukraine were surprising bronze medal winners with a total of 290.40 points.

Earlier, the competition was declared open by Fina Bureau Member Orban Mendoza in the presence of Cornel Marculescu, Fina Executive Director, Dr Ahmad Sa'ad Al Sharif, General Secretary, Dubai Sports Council (DSC) and Ahmad Al Falasi, President, UAE Swimming Association (UAESA).

Cornelescu lauded the efforts and the vision of the UAE in hosting such a prestigious competition.In his opening remarks, Al Falasi thanked the world governing body for allowing the country to host some top-quality competition here.