Rivals see an end to China’s diving dominance

Dubai: Ukrainian Illya Kvasha was ecstatic after winning gold ahead of China’s He Chong in the second round of the 2013 Fina/Midea Diving World Series at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Sports Complex last week.

The Ukrainian had every reason to be proud of his feat. After all, he is among the very few divers to have managed to break the recent Chinese dominance of the sport.

Another to challenge the Chinese was Kvasha’s namesake Ilya Zakharov, from Russia, after he upstaged the entire field to win gold in the men’s 3m springboard at last year’s London Olympics. And while some believe the gap between China and the rest is narrowing, the competitors themselves know that beating a rival from the Far East is reason enough to celebrate, no matter what colour the medal it gives them.

“I don’t really know which is bigger. Whether winning a silver medal or being placed better than a Chinese diver,” Spain’s Javier Illana Garcia told Gulf News after bagging the silver medal in the men’s 3m springboard in Dubai ahead of the favoured He, but behind Kvasha.

“Of course the focus is really on doing well in each and every jump. But the Chinese are in a league of their own, so the best thing is to just go out there and do the best you can. The trick I think lies in making less mistakes than the other divers.”

China came to this second round of the six-stop Diving World Series tour having won all eight gold medals in the opening round at Beijing’s Water Cube a week earlier. In Dubai, they were five out of five until Kvasha and Garcia intervened, although they did eventually take seven out of the eight golds.

“It is a real deal to beat a diver from China. The idea is to be at your best all the time and thus keep the pressure on the other divers. We are all human and at some point they [the Chinese] are bound to make a mistake. It’s really a lesson in patience,” Kvasha said.

The 25-year-old Ukrainian got a great start in the final and after the second dive, for which he totalled 96.90 points, Kvasha was 22 points clear of He.

In the third dive, He managed 91 points with his reverse three-and-a-half somersault tuck to cut the lead to ten points, and then by the fourth the Chinese was withing seven points of his rival.

But Kvasha’s back two-and-a-half somersault pike in his fifth visit saw the Ukrainian race ahead by more than 14 points to win the gold comfortably. “It’s got nothing to do with confidence levels really. It’s just about going out there and doing the best you can by merely focusing on yourself rather than on what others are doing,” Kvasha said.

“The good thing is that we are slowly gaining ground and finding a way to beat the Chinese. A lot of hard work is also going into getting ready and primed for such competitions. Things don’t happen overnight. Eventually we will maintain this sort of form heading to Barcelona [for this year’s World Championships].”

However, China’s men’s 10m platform gold medallist Lin Yue shrugged off Kvasha’s success as a one-off. “Diving is a fairly technical sport. You make one small mistake and the other divers stick to their plan, you are in trouble,” Yue said after his success on Saturday.

“Barcelona is the bigger picture. We are not worried. If there is enough hard work being put in by the other divers, they are going to be rewarded.”

The third round of the Diving World Series will be held in Edinburgh on April 19 to 21.