Two Chinese rookies acted as giant killer in Melbourne on Friday,
securing the diving powerhouse's winning stretch at the World
Championships.
As a World Championships rookie, the 20-year-old Qin Kai hold
his consistency well all along and triumphed in the men's
three-meter springboard with 545.35 points.
Qin's strong performance forced reigning champion Alexandre
Despatie from Canada and Russian legend Dmitry Sautin to trail
behind with 518.65 and 517.10 points respectively.
Before Qin grabbing the Chinese diving's sixth gold in
Melbourne, his teammate He Zi triumphed in the women's one-meter
springboard at her first World Championships.
The 16-year-old rookie showed no stage fright as she contending
with a field of seasoned top divers. After five marvelous dives,
she notched up the gold with 316.65 points.
Dual world champion Blythe Hartley of Canada had to settle for
the second place with 311.20 points and Russian veteran Yuliya
Pakhalina finished third with 304.60 points.
In the medal table, second-ranked China added two golds to get a
total of six golds, but top-positioned Russia also stepped further
with another gold in synchronized swimming.
The world and Olympic champions Anastasia Davydova/Anastasia
Ermakova finished first in the duet free routine with 99.333
points, followed by Gemma Mengual/Paola Tirados Sanchez from Spain
with 97.667 points and Japanese pair Ayako Matsumura/Emiko Suzuki
with 97.333 points.
So far, Russia has collected five golds from synchronized
swimming and three more from open water swimming.
The only one gold on Saturday will hardly slipped off Russia's
hand as the dominating Russian synchronized swimming team will
dance to the team free title gracefully.
(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2007)