China’s teenage stars share platform glory
Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan sealed a Chinese one-two in the women’s 10-meter platform final at the FINA World Championships in Budapest on Monday.
The 16-year-old Chen retained her world title with a score of 417.25 points, just 0.3 ahead of her compatriot Quan, who is one year younger.
Malaysia’s Pandelela Pamg bagged the bronze with 338.85 points.
“I did not notice the score difference between myself and Hongchan. I don’t focus on that but always on my own performance,” Chen told Xinhua.
“It wasn’t a perfect display from me, especially since I didn’t finish well in the last two dives. I could have been better.”
Chen won Olympic gold with Zhang Jiaqi in the women’s 10m platform synchronized event last summer, and is now growing accustomed to being the front-runner at major international events.
“It feels very different to defend the title. When I won the gold for the first time in 2019, I didn’t have any special feeling. But following my experience at the Olympics, I started to realize how much this means to me.”
She will team up with 10m platform Olympic champion Quan in the 10m synchronized event at the worlds. The teenagers are in the unusual position of being both partners and rivals, and Chen says they spur each other on to greater heights.
“We take it as motivation instead of pressure, and it will help us produce our best in the synchro,” she said.
Quan admitted she felt the pressure as the event’s reigning Olympic champion.
“I did not execute the finish of my third dive well. It happened both in the preliminaries and the semifinals,” Quan said. “I think I need more training to improve this.
“So many people are watching my performance. So many Chinese fans are cheering for me. During the competition, I might have one moment when I overthink things, but after the third dive I recovered mentally. In general, I’m feeling good this time.”
Quan was just 14 years and 130 days old when she won the women’s 10m platform at last year’s Tokyo Olympics. She was the second youngest diver to win an Olympic title in the event, following China’s Fu Mingxia (13 years and 346 days) at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Only two female divers have managed to win the 10m platform world title as the reigning Olympic champion — Ulrika Knape-Lindberg of Sweden in 1973, and Fu in 1994.
Monday’s gold was the second for Chinese divers at the Budapest worlds. Cao Yuan and Wang Zongyuan topped the podium in the men’s 3m synchronized on Sunday.
Earlier on Monday, Wang and Cao topped the standings of the men’s 3m springboard semifinals, scoring 547.95 and 482.50 points respectively.