A homegrown golden sweep

China finished the FINA Diving World Cup with a clean sweep of all 11 gold medals after Olympic champions Chen Aisen and the synchro pair of Shi Tingmao and Chang Yani brought home the host nation’s final two victories here on Sunday.

Chen, who led after the first four dives despite making a mistake on his 207B dive, stayed cool on his final two to lift his first individual World Cup title in the men’s 10m platform final with 557.80 points.

Yang Jian, the 2014 World Cup winner, failed to strike gold on his birthday, as he trailed Chen before scoring 102.60 on his fifth 207B dive, becoming the new leader with a 0.45-point advantage.

However, Yang made an error on his last 109B, the trickiest dive with a 4.1 degree of difficulty. He scored just 79.95 points and had to settle for silver with a total of 537.40.

David Dinsmore of the United States repeated his finish in Rio two years ago by taking bronze with 489.80.

“It was completely unexpected for me to have my best performance of here,” said Chen.

“I did not expect the to year win gold since I have been sick and had injuries during the winter, and I am still trying to find my form. The reason I won was because I did not give up, even when I was at a low ebb.”

Meanwhile, 24-year-old Yang was able to console himself with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday from local fans.

“It was a pity to only score a silver medal as a birthday gift, but I am lucky and happy that the audience celebrated my birthday at the pool deck,” he said. “I made mistakes on the 5156B and 109B dives that cost me the chance of walking away with the victory. I need to improve my consistency.”

In the women’s 3m springboard synchro, defending champions Shi and Chang dominated the field, scoring 334.80 points to claim gold ahead of Canadian duo Jennifer Abel and Melissa CitriniBeaulieu, who scored 302.04. Australia’s Esther Qin and Anabelle Smith took bronze with a score of 290.10.

“We are honored to seal victory in the World Cup’s final event,” Shi said. “We did a great job in front of the home fans and helped China secure a clean sweep of golds.”

The week-long competition featured 296 divers from 26 countries and regions.

XIAO YIJIU / XINHUA Chen Aisen of China beat teammate and birthday boy Yang Jian to win the men’s 10m platform title at the FINA Diving World Cup in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Sunday.