China snatches four synchro titles at FINA Diving World Series in Beijing

The Chinese divers wrapped up four gold medals in synchro events on offer while Ukraine took two silvers and Britain one silver and one bronze on the first day of the FINA/NVC Diving World Series 2016 here on Friday.

Liu Huixia/Si Yajie, who teamed up for only three days, led the women's 10m synchro platform by winning 334.68 points, Tonia Couch/Lois Toulson of Britain came to second with 317.46 and Mun Yee Leong/Pandelela Rinong Pamg of Malaysia third in 311.70.

Liu, who originally paired with four-time Olympic champion Chen Ruolin and claimed victory in the World Cup last month, revealed Chen will be absent from the first two legs of the World Series.

"Chen will take a short break and start to compete the international meet from the third leg of the World Series. I am satisfied with our performance with Si today," Liu said.

World champions Lin Yue/Chen Aisen showed their consistence in the men's 10m synchro platform and won in 477.15, beating Maksym Dolgov/Oleksandr Gorshkovozov of Ukraine 426.21 and Thomas Daley/Daniel Goodfellow of Britain 420.15.

"We performed better than we did in the World Cup. I am happy that we continue our good form and good synchronization," said Lin, Beijing Olympic champion in the event.

For Thomas Daley, all the travels and efforts are paid off since he changed a new partner Daniel Goodfellow since last October.

"The World Cup was our first international meet since we started to train together since last October. We did a lot of traveling. We live four hours away from each other, so we train together either in London or Plymouth as much as we could. Usually we trained together for three or four days. I am happy that our synchronization is very good. What we need to do is to make sharp of our individual dives to catch up with the Chinese," Daley said.

New pair He Zi/Wang Han dominated the women's 3m synchro springboard in 330.30, ahead of Viktoriya Kesar/Anastasiia Nedobiga of Ukraine 295.98 and Tania Cagnotto/Francesca Dallape of Italy 293.79.

"We have not trained together for a long time, but we know each other very well and feel comfortable to be a team. We did a good job today," He Zi said.

Cagnotto was surprised with their bronze-medal performance. "We took some days off after the World Cup and did not think that we could dive well here. However, we are surprised we did it. We will compete in the next three legs of World Series and European championships in May, then start to focus on the training camp before Rio Olympic Games," said the 1m springboard world champion.

In men's 3m synchro springboard, Cao Yuan/Qin Kai regained consistence and confidence they lost in the World Cup last month by winning 442.74. Russian pair Evgenii Kuznetsov/Ilia Zakharov took the silvers in 430.32 and Sam Dorman/Kristian Ipsen of the United States third in 409.08.

"We are happy that we walked out of the shadow from the World Cup and did very well today. We find back our consistence and confidence. We met some problems and we solved them within one week. We will keep our fighting spirit to the Olympic Games," Cao said.

A total of 67 international divers, 34 women and 33 men, from 12 countries and regions take part in the three-day World Series at the National Aquatics Center, the "Water Cube".

There are 10 events on offer at the four-leg circuit World Series, including four individual events and six sycnhro in the men's and women's 3m springboard and 10m platform. Enditem