Another perfect day in pool for China
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Shanghai Daily, July 20, 2011
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The silver medal-winning Chinese synchronized swimming team performs at the World Championships in Shanghai yesterday. |
Already dominating the diving pool at the world championships, China took its performance to an even higher level in men's 3-meter synchro: Qin Kai and Luo Yutong earned 10 perfect marks while winning the host country's sixth gold medal.
The Chinese divers pulled away midway through the final yesterday and went on to win with 463.98 points, giving China its second gold of the day and eighth medal overall in the outdoor pool.
Earlier, Shi Tingmao and Wang Han finished 1-2 in the women's 1-meter to complete a springboard sweep for the Chinese.
In the men's final, Ilya Zakharov and Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia took the silver with 451.89, rallying from fourth on their last dive. Mexico's Yahel Castillo and Julian Sanchez earned the bronze at 437.61.
Americans Kristian Ipsen and Troy Dumais settled for fourth at 429.06, the highest finish for the US so far. They were in second place going into the last dive, but Dumais missed on a reverse 2 1-2 somersault with 1-2 twists to drop out of medal contention. The duo won the silver two years ago in Rome.
The Chinese led all the way, increasing their lead by double digits starting with the third round. Qin, who won the gold in Rome with a different partner, and Luo did the same dive as the Americans in the final round, and the Chinese received one 10 for execution. Their first two dives earned four 10s each for synchronization, and their third dive received one 10, causing fans to pound their red-and-white Thunderstix.
The Chinese are known for their high degree of difficulty, but it was the Russian duo who performed the toughest dive of the competition.
Zakharov and Kuznetsov went for it on their final dive, a forward with 4 1-2 twists that earned high enough marks to push them onto the medals podium.
The women's contest was close, with Shi totaling 318.65 points and Wang just 8.45 points behind for silver with 310.20. Wang improved on her third-place showing two years ago in Rome.
"I was nervous today, so it's hard to win. But I feel pretty good at last," said Shi, a 19-year-old who is not on China's national team. "My opponents are strong so I stayed in a low key before the contest. The biggest achievement is that I am now a world champion, not just a national champion anymore."
Italy's Tania Cagnotto earned the bronze with 295.45 after being 12th in the preliminaries. "This is a great medal, maybe my best one," she said. "This time I'm congratulating myself."
The Italian diver broke her wrist last month in a scooter accident and had surgery, leaving her just two weeks to train for worlds.
"I even didn't know whether I can compete," Cagnotto said. "The Chinese divers are consistent and they are the best. Although I trained very hard, it's still too difficult to beat them."
Wang led after the first round before Shi took over the top spot through the last four rounds.
Their teammates, Li Shixin and He Min, won gold and silver in the men's 1-meter event on Monday.
Shi led Wang by just 4.55 points after four dives. Both women performed reverse 1 1-2 somersaults with 1 1-2 twists on their last dives, with equal 2.6 degree of difficulty, but Shi received marks of 9.0 and higher, while Wang's marks ranged from 8.0 to 9.0.
"The Chinese are really consistent, and they are beautiful divers," said American Abby Johnston, who was sixth.
Russia, meanwhile, won its third successive synchronized swimming team technical world championships gold medal yesterday with a high tempo routine that earned sustained applause from the audience.
China claimed silver with a performance that brought the crowd to its feet but was not quite enough to overcome the Russians and they finished with 96.800 points. Spain won the bronze medal, scoring 96.000 points.
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