China kicks off Diving World Series Kazan leg with 4 gold medals on offer
Xinhua, April 1, 2017 Adjust font size:
Diving powerhouse China swept the four synchronized diving titles on offer on the first day of the FINA Diving World Series Kazan on Saturday.
In the women's 10m synchro platform, Olympic champion Ren Qian and her new partner Chang Yani dominated the match from the beginning and won the gold medal with a total of 328.20 points. 2016 Olympic bronze winner Canadian Meaghan Benfeito teaming young and rising Caeli McKay finished second with 291.06. Iuliia Timoshinina/Valeriia Belova of Russia came third in 284.76.
In the men's 10m synchro platform, Chen Aisen/Yang Hao repeated their victories in the previous two legs. The duo finished in 462.57, over 54 points clear of the silver medallists, Sascha Klein/Patrick Hausding of Germany. Britain's Thomas Daley/Daniel Goodfellow collected 408.54 to come third.
Young diver Chang Yani, who won the synchro platform with Ren in the previous two legs in the Series, dived together with Olympic champion Shi Tingmao in the women's synchro springboard. The duo dominated the event with 321.90.
Russian Kristina Ilinykh and Nadezhda Bazhina finished 12 points adrift on second, while Australian Maddison Keeney and Esther Qin took bronze with 289.90.
In the men's 3m synchro springboard, China's Cao Yuan/Xie Siyi, winners of the previous two legs, kept their form and led all the way to win in Kazan, collecting 458.82 points. Olympic champions Chris Mears and Jack Laugher totalled 420.24, 30 points behind the leader and over 50 ahead of their closest opponents from Russia. Russia's veterans Ilia Zakharov/Evgenii Kuznetsov were not stable at home and had to settle with a bronze at 376.83. Endit