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Sports / China |
China sweeps two golds at FINA Diving World Cup(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-22 07:31 BEIJING -- Chinese divers extended their dominant run in the 16th FINA Diving World Cup, swept both of Thursday's two gold medals to take their gold tally to four. He Chong took China's third gold in men's three-meter springboard, while teenage pair Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin ruled the women's 10m platform synchronized final. He, 22, who is famous for his performances with high degree of difficulty, made six high-level dives to keep leading the final. His winning mark was 530.30 points. "Winning the World Cup is very important for me because lots of my teammates in the national team are world champions." He, winner of the event at the 2007 World Series in Nanjing, east China, had failed to perform normally in the final at the Melbourne world championships and only finished sixth among a field of 12. Qin Kai, winner of the event in Melbourne, displayed a lackluster performance, managed to beat bronze medalist Yahel Castillo of Mexico by a margin of 0.30 points. The Canadian "Golden Boy" Despatie, dual gold medallist at the 2005 Montreal world championships, was the hot favorite of the event after leading the semifinals earlier on Thursday. Despatie overcame a frustrating start to trail He after the third dive, but he didn't perform well in the last two dives and eventually fell to the fifth. In front of the full-house audience, Chen and Wang showed a class of their own by collecting 375.66 points. Canadian Emilie Heymans and Marie-Eve Marleau, silver medalists in the event in the Athens Olympic Games, posted 340.05 to take the silver. Australian Wu Melissa and Briony Cole, runners-up in the event in Melbourne Worlds, finished third at 334.80. The 16th FINA Diving World Cup, which runs from February 19 to 25, serves as an Olympic qualifier and has attracted 296 divers from 56 countries and regions. |
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