Reaching the century mark
▶ Teenage divers earn 100th gold for China at FINA Worlds
Chinese divers continued to impress with three gold medals on Day 12 of the 19th FINA World Championships onWednesday, on Wednesday, bring their total gold medals to 102 at the World Championships.
Teenage diving pair Quan Hongchan and Bai Yuming clinched China’s hi 100th h diving di i gold ld at FINA F World Championships.
The two 15- year- olds dominated in the mixed 3- meter and 10- meter team event for the fifth gold for China in as many events in this year’s worlds at the Duna Arena.
“I’m so happy to win the gold, especially it was the 100th for the Chinese team,” said the worlds debutant Bai, who contributed three dives including two from the 10- meter platform and one from the 3- meter springboard.
“The mixed team event is a little similar to the singles event, but I feel it was more difficult. I did better on the springboard, but for the platform, I was too nervous and it was just not so good,” the boy added.
The duo sat on the top position from the first dive to the last, finishing with 391.40 points to secure the gold. French divers Jade Gillet and Alexis Jandard took the silver with 358.50 and British pair Andrea Spendolini Sirieix and James Heatly won the bronze with 357.60.
Olympic gold medalist Quan, who replaced another Olympic champion Zhang Jiaqi to compete in the event, won her second medal, also her first gold, at the worlds.
“I was satisfied with my performance today, especially on the platform because it was my major event,” said Quan, who was edged by fellow Chinese Chen Yuxi in the women’s 10- meter platform on Monday.
“I was informed to replace my teammate to participate in the event
yesterday, I was surprised but also very happy because I felt it was a chance to win one more medal,” Quan added.
Powerhouse China has won 95 of the h available il bl 151 gold ld medals d l in i diving di i in the tournament’s history before coming to Budapest, which accounts for 63 percent of the total. Russia ( excluding the Soviet Union) and the United States follow on 13 world titles each in the sport.
China collected at least one gold medal in diving in each of the last 14 world championships and won 12 of the 13 titles at the last edition of the tournament in 2019.
Li Yajie shone in the women’s 1- meter springboard with an impressive result of 300.85 points, the only diver to pass the 300 threshold. The match for the silver was extremely tight as Sarah Bacon ( 276.65 points) from the United States finished second before Canadian Mia Vallee ( 276.60) with an edge of 0.05 points.
In the last diving final on Wednesday, China’s Lin Shan and Zhu Zifeng won the mixed 3- meter synchronized with a more than comfortable advantage, 324.15 points, ahead of Chiara Pellacani/ Matteo Santoro from Italy ( 293.55) and James Heatly/ Grace Reid from Britain ( 287.61).
The trailblazing ‘ Diving Queen’
Gao Min, China’s first diving gold medalist at the world championships, posted a video of herself diving in a river on China’s twitter- like Sina Weibo after the Chinese divers won their 100th gold.
“I had the honor to win the first women’s springboard gold for my country 36 years ago, and today I am diving once again to congratulate
Team China,” Gao wrote.
Gao, stood on the diving board b in front of the world in Madrid, Spain in August 1986, and made the history h for the Chinese diving team.
“I kept telling myself to take tak it easy, take it easy. But my mind min did not obey me at all, and my body shook. s I knew then that I could not conquer co nerves, and the only thing I could c do was to control it and use it,” it Gao told ld the h Xinhua i h News Agency. At that time, the 15- year- old had only just completed her first adult competition a mere five months before.
She stood firm and kept balance, then swung her arms diving into the water. At the moment her body touched the water surface, Gao was sure that she had won.
When Gao’s gold medal finish was settled, many people rushed to congratulate the young athlete. A Spanish woman asked her jokingly that “is this girl from another planet?” Gao answered in English, “China, I come from China.”
After the ceremony of medal presentation ended, Gao met a Chinese man outside the stadium who had been waiting for her for a long while. The man deeply bowed to Gao and her team and said, “I have been to Spain for many years, and today’s playing the national anthem and raising the national flag made me feel proud for the first time.”
Gao said she was lucky, because “at that time, I happened to encounter Chinese national team’s great reform and innovation of many diving techniques. Because of all these technological innovations, we blew the world away. China can lead the world in diving, which has a lot to do with that big step.”