Chinese divers back to winning ways in Dubai

Dubai: Chen Ruolin and Lin Yue ensured China ended the Dubai leg of the Fina/Midea Diving World Series on a dominant note with the last two gold medals on Saturday.

Smarting from their shock loss in the men’s 3m springboard at the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Sports Complex here on Friday, the Chinese ensured there were no further hiccups as they finished on top of the overall medals tally with seven of the eight golds on offer.

Leading the onslaught on the third and final day was multiple Olympic and world champion Chen, who had combined with Liu Huixia to win gold in the women’s 10m synchro platform on the opening day on Thursday.

On Saturday the 2008 and 2012 Olympic gold medallist was challenged to some extent by Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito. But Chen relied on her superior experience to win the women’s 10m platform for her second gold medal. Yulia Koltunova of Russia took the bronze behind Benfeito.

The men’s 10m platform saw an exciting contest between two Chinese divers, with Aisen Chen challenging his more experienced teammate Lin until the very end. After trailing his synchro partner after the first two dives, Lin moved up a gear and came up with a superb effort of 97.20 points with a back two-and-a-half somersault, two-and-a-half twist pike to pick up his second gold here.

Aisen had to be content with the silver on 571.60 points, while the bronze went to Victor Minibaev of Russia with 538.05 points.

Russia’s Ilya Zakharov, who won gold at London 2012, was among the main divers missing out on the Dubai leg of the Diving World Series due to a shoulder injury after landing awkwardly at Beijing’s Water Cube last Sunday.

The competition now heads to Edinburgh followed by stops in Moscow, Guadalajara and Mexico City.