Chinese gold rush continues at world championships
BUDAPEST — Chinese diver Wang Zongyuan claimed his second gold medal of the FINA World Championships in Budapest on Tuesday after beating compatriot Cao Yuan in the men’s 3-meter springboard final.
Later, Yang Hao and Lian Junjie landed another gold for China, prevailing in the men’s 10m synchronized platform.
Wang took the lead with his first dive and finished with 561.95 points to complete a double of the individual and synchronized titles in the 3m springboard.
“In the preliminary stage, I made some mistakes. But I adjusted well in the semifinal and final,” Wang said. “The first two and the last dives in the final were pretty good, but as for the other three, I think I can do better.”
Wang claimed silver behind compatriot Xie Siyi in the event at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
“During the competition, I only focused on my own dives. You shouldn’t think about others’ points or the changes in the rankings. All you have to do is think about the technical things and focus on each dive, one at a time. This was what I did in the final,” the 21-year-old added.
Cao, Wang’s partner in the synchronized, ranked second with 492.85 points to pocket his 13th medal at the worlds and Olympic Games combined — only Russian legend Dmitriy Sautin (17) has won more medals in these two championships.
“No matter who I compete with, I try to treat the event in the same way,” said the 27-year-old, a threetime Olympic champion.
“Today I think I could have done better with the height of my jump. If so, maybe the points would’ve been higher.”
Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist Jack Laugher bounced back from his poor fourth dive to take the bronze with 473.30 points. The Briton slipped to sixth place after collecting only 37.80 in the fourth round but clawed back to the podium with a 91.20 score in his fifth attempt and a 97.50 in his last dive.
China extended its dominance in the discipline by winning the title for a record ninth time, including at each of the last eight editions. The most recent non-Chinese athlete to win the title in this event was Alexandre Despatie of Canada in 2005.
In the 10m platform final, Yang and Lian scored 467.79 points to secure China’s fourth gold from as many diving events at the worlds.
British pair Matthew Lee and Noah Williams took the silver with 427.71, and Canada’s Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray completed the podium with 417.12.
“We have just teamed up for a short time, and in fact our performance today was not good enough for a premier event like the worlds,” said Yang, who had won the gold in the same event five years ago in Budapest with Chen Aisen.
“The Chinese team failed to secure the gold in this event at the Tokyo Olympics, so we are happy that this time we won it back,” the 24-year-old added.
British diver Lee teamed with Tom Daley to win men’s 10m synchronized gold in Tokyo ahead of Cao and Chen.