China’s Ren, 15, follows in Fu footsteps with gold

Fif Fifteen-year-old sc schoolgirl Ren Qian fo followed in the fo footsteps of Chinese di diving great Fu Mingxia when she became the youngest medalist of the Rio Games with her 10-meter platform gold on Thursday.

The reigning World Cup champion becomes the second youngest winner of the women’s 10-meter platform since Fu became the icon of the 1992 Barcelona Games winning the 10-meter platform aged 13.

Ren emerged from the shadows of 17-year-old teammate Si Yajie, who had dominated the qualifiers and semifinals in Rio, to give China six wins out of seven events in the Olympic diving competition.

China have won the women’s 10-meter platform at seven of the past nine Olympic Games, and had been favorites on a warm afternoon with just a slight breeze in the Maria Lenk Aquatics Center.

Ren was the only diver to tally more than 90 points – which she did on her last three of five dives – scoring 439.25 points to finish 19.85 points ahead of Si (419.40).

Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito (389.20) won her third Olympic bronze, after the 27-year-old also finished third in the synchro event.

“When I was a little kid, I always had a dream to do diving,” said Ren, who is hopeful of defending her title in 2020.

Fu – a four-time Olympic gold medalist – successfully defended her 10m platform title in Atlanta 1996.

“You never know how tall you will get. I am quite tall for my age, but I will continue to work hard and press on with my training,” she said.

Ren had finished second in last year’s worlds behind North Korea’s Kim Kuk-hyang, who got off to a nervous start and failed to get past the qualifiers. But Ren was however not totally happy with her performance.

“It was pretty good but not really perfect, up to my expectations. You can consider me a perfectionist,” she said. “I was lacking a bit of confidence in the beginning.”

Si was sporting in defeat to her younger teammate.

“I really had high hopes and expectations for the gold medal,” said Si. “But to be honest I think my teammate is a better diver so I think that she really deserved the gold.”