Dubai There were no surprises of any proportions as China claimed all four gold medals on offer at the end of the opening day of the 2012 Fina/Midea Diving World Series at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex here late on Friday.

World champion He Chong shrugged off a slow start to get the ball rolling for the world champions by winning the men’s 3m Springboard, while the Chinese pair of Wu Minxia and He Zi combined to take gold in the women’s 3m Synchro Springboard.

Yuan Cao and Yanquan Zhang then combined to lead from start to finish and take top honours in the men’s 10m Synchro Platform and Chen Roulin rounded off a golden day for the Chinese with a triumph in the women’s 10m Platform, though after facing a stiff opposition from Mexico’s Paola Espinosa.

Chong showed why he is the best in the men’s 3m Springboard 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 fantastic fifth dive for a score of 93.60 points to pick up the silver with a total of 496.30 points.

Ending in third and 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. And ironically, Zakharov has always ended up playing second fiddle to the Chinese champion taking the silver in London earlier this year, preceded by silver medals in 2011 and 2010 in Shanghai and Torino respectively.

In the women’s competition, there was no such hitch as reigning World champion Minxia combined with Zi 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 Saad 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. “I want to thank the UAE Swimming Federation and the Dubai Sports Council for staging this competition at this amazing venue and I believe this sets a great example to all other countries of what can be done,” he said.

In his opening remarks, Al Falasi thanked the world governing body for allowing the country to host some top-quality competition here since the past couple of years starting with the Fina World Swimming Championships (25m) in 2010 and the Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup last year.

“This competition will allow athletes from all over the world to use this event as part of their preparations to this summer’s London Olympics,” Dr Sharif hoped.

Prior to the opening ceremony, the holiday crowd at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex was entertained by the antics of the nine-man highly-acclaimed Jerobeam Clown Diving Team from Finland.

As many as 58 divers from eleven countries are participating in the Dubai leg of the 2012 Fina/Midea Diving World Series that concludes at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex later tonight. Competition will start at

 

Results:

Men’s 3m Springboard: 1. He Chong (China); 2. Illya Zakharov (Russia); 3. Qin Kai (China).

Women’s 3m Synchro Springboard: 1. China (Wu Minxia and He Zi); 2. USA (Christina Loukas and Kassidy Cook); 3. Ukraine (Anna Pysmenska and Olena Fedorova).

Men’s 10m Synchro Platform: 1. China (Yuan Cao and Yanquan Zhang); 2. Ukraine (Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Oleksandr Bondar); 3. Russia (Illya Zakharov and Victor Minibaev).

Women’s 10m Platform: 1. Ruolin Chen (China); 2. Paola Espinosa (Mexico); 3. Pamg Pandelela Rinong (Malaysia).