China craving new pool of superstars
“Chen Aisen has had arm injuries, and that affected his performance. Yang Jian was in better condition throughout winter training, but he still made some mistakes and could not stabilize the quality of his body movements. That was not normal for him.”
Chen, who won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was disappointed with his effort on Sunday. He scored 529.05 points, 10.5 points behind Yang.
“I have not been in good form recently, so the result today was not that bad for me,” said Chen.
“I have to work hard in training and try to go back to my best level.”
Apart from established divers like Wang Han, Yang Jian and Shi Tingmao, many youngsters made stellar debuts for China, including 14-year-old twins Zhang Jiaqi and Zhang Minjie, who won the 10m women’s synchronized event.
Zhang Jiaqi claimed her second title of the meet in the 10m platform with 439.10 points to edge Rio Olympic gold medalist Ren Qian, who scored 432.30.
“That was the highest score of my career in this event, and I was trying to focus on each dive during the competition. I didn’t think too much about the points,” said Zhang, who shot to attention as a 13-yearold by winning both the single and synchronized 10m crowns at last year’s Chinese National Games.
The World Series marked her first international meet.
“Of course, I’m very happy now, but I should stay humble. There is still a long way to go for me,” Zhang said.
Zhou was keen to put Zhang’s victories into context, given the absence of some of the foreign competitors.
“We have many problems to solve in the future. In this World Series, it was clear that some foreign divers were not at their best and many did not participate.
“This is only the first stop of the World Series this year, and we will face much tougher tests in future competitions. The condition of foreign divers will improve.”