China finishes FINA Diving World Series Beijing with three more titles

BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- It was another perfect day for diving powerhouse China as the home divers grabbed the last three titles at the FINA Diving World Series at the Water Cube in Beijing on Sunday.

Thus, China has pocketed all the ten golds at the first leg of this year's FINA Diving World Series.

"This tournament was an test for our winter training. Winning all the 10 golds was a good start for us, but we should realize that we still made many mistakes during the matches. It was the first leg of this year's World Series, I believe the future games would be much difficult for us," said Zhou Jihong, the manager of Chinese diving team.

Zhang Jiaqi got 439.10 points to edge Rio Olympic gold medalist Ren Qian, 432.30, in women's 10m platform to claim her second title of the tournament. She had also won the 10m synchronized gold with partner Zhang Minjie on Friday.

"It was my career highest score in this event, I was trying to focus on each dive during the competition. I didn't think too much about the score in the game," Zhang, 14, said.

Widely regarded as China's next diving superstar, Zhang had already showed her talent in domestic competitions last year at the Chinese National Games, when she took both the single and synchronized titles of women's 10m platform. The FINA Diving World Series Beijing was her first international tournament, and the Chinese diver again proved her supremacy.

"Of course, I'm very happy now, but I should stay humble. There is still a long way to go for me," Zhang added.

Chen Aisen was the other Olympic champion who failed to win the gold on Sunday. He got 529.05 in men's 10m platform, 10.5 points behind his teammate Yang Jian to claim the silver.

"I was not in good form recently, so the result today was not that bad for me," Chen said, "I have to work hard in the training and try to go back to my best level."

This victory was Yang's first international event title since the year of 2014. As the holder of the world record 616.50 points in men's 10m platform, the 24-year-old said it was a little "lucky" to win the gold.

"It was a lucky win for me. All the other divers were not in their best form today, I'm just the one who made less mistakes," Yang said.

Later in the evening, Lin Shan and Lian Junjie took the title in mixed 10m synchro platform with 349.56 points. Divers from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Britain took the other medals. Enditem