China sweep 10 golds in FINA Diving World Series in Beijing

In front of full-house local audience, Chinese divers clinched the rest three titles on the platform on the last day and swept all the 10 gold medals on off at the FINA/NVC Diving World Series 2016 at the National Aquatic Center, the Water Cube here on Sunday.

Si Yajie, 2013 world champion, made a strong come back on the women's 10m platform final and won the title in 383.10 points, edging her newly-crowned World Cup winner teammate Ren Qain by 2.50. Melissa Wu of Australia took the bronze in 342.10.

Si, who slumped for about one year after her victory at the 2013 Barcelona World Championships due to growth, overcame her taller height and heavier weight and returned to the top level by finishing second place behind Ren Qian in the World Cup last month in Rio.

"I lost to Ren recently because my entry is not that good. I am happy with the gold that every victory has its special meaning to me. There are five months to go to the Olympic Games, I hope I can improve my entry and keep my resistance," said the 18-year-old Si.

Ren admitted her mistake in the first dive cost her victory. "My first dive was very bad but I had to focus on my next dives and tried to come back. I felt tired and rusty after the World Cup and that is the reason why I did not perform good today. But I really I hope I can take the gold in Kazan later the World Series," Ren, silver medalist in Kazan worlds last year.

The final of the men's 10m platform was a showdown of the top four finishers of the London Olympic Games However, it was the 20-year-old Chen Aisen snatched the gold 572.40 while he collected over 90 points for all the six dives and a second highest score of the day 103.60 in 109C. World Cup champion and Olympic runner-up Qiu Bo had to concede to a silver in 564.40, only 8.o points shy of the gold though he had a day-high 104.50 for his 5156B.

Victor Minibaev of Russia came to third in 507.65, beating Olympic bronze medalist Thomas Daley by 0.95 point. Benjamin Auffret of France finished fifth 435.05 and Olympic champion David Boudia of the United States came to sixth 422.00.

Chen, who led all the way through the final, said it was his first time to compete with Olympic star divers.

"I competed in individual event in FINA World Series in 2013, but in recent years I focused more on the synchro together with Lin Yue. I felt pressure in the final because the top four divers of London Olympic Games were competing with me. I made a small mistakes in my fourth and last dive today. I hope I can earn a ticket to Olympic Games and face the best divers of the world in Rio," Chen said.

Though 0.95 points away from the bronze medal, Thomas Daley was happy for his overall performance.

"It is my first individual platform competition of the season. I will continue to compete the individual in the next three World Series. I am looking forward to compete in Dubai now. I think I am now 70 percent of my form, and hopefully I will be 100 percent in shape at the Olympic Games. What I need to do is to sharp some of my dives, keep consistence, and compete as much as I can with those best divers in the world. The divers tonight in the final would be the finalists in the Olympic Games, I will fight out for a medal then," Daley said.

The Beijing stop is the first of the four-leg FINA/NVC Diving World Series 2016, the meet will next come to Dubai in March 17-19, Windsor in April 15-17 and Kazan April 22-24. Endit