Chinese divers maintained their gold medal-winning streak on Day 2 of the FINA World Cup in Changshu, Jiangsu Province as Jia Tong and Qin Kai won the women's 10m platform and men's 3m springboard events yesterday respectively.

Although Qin's only podium finish in this year's Grand Prix was a silver medal in Russia, he lived up to the expectations with a total score of 538.50 points. Alexander Dobroskok from Russia finished second with 476.65, and American Troy Dumais third with 475.15.

Title favorite He Chong of China shockingly failed to collect any points in the first round of the same event.

"I had never thought about winning the gold tonight as my teammate He is so formidable on the springboard," said the 20-year-old Qin, adding that He's failure in the first dive put some pressure on him.

Although he failed to complete a forward three-and-a-half somersault in the first round, He earned high scores from the judges later with five sensational dives, two of which garnered him scores of above 100 points. But it was too little too late and he had to settle for fifth place.

Qin Kai

 

Earlier on Thursday, teenager Jia Tong stood out in a strong field of six to claim victory in the women's 10m platform event.

Despite a poorly executed backward three-and-a-half somersault in the third round that gave her only 49.50 points, the 14-year-old diving starlet kept a cool head and nailed two spectacular dives after. She finished top of the table with 385.30 points.

"I didn't perform well in the preliminaries but improved to some extent in the semi-final and final," Jia said. "After all, it's a World Cup competition and I was not as relaxed as in the Grand Prix events."

Jia grabbed a gold in the 10m platform synchronized event at 2005 World Aquatic Championships in Montreal, Canada. In addition, the World Championships rookie pulled off a bronze in the 10m platform final.

Jia Tong

Jia's teammate Lao Lishi finished second with a total score of 379.85 points, and 2003 world champion Emilie Heymans won the bronze for Canada with 376.35 points.

Defending World Cup and last year's world champion, Laura Wilkinson from the US only managed fourth place with 352.70 points.

Jia will pair up with 12-year-old Chen Ruolin to compete in the women's 10m platform synchronized event today, while He is slated to compete in the men's 3m springboard synchronized event with veteran Wang Feng.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)