More diving golds for China in dominant performance

With its sights on the Paris Olympics, China is turning in another dominant diving performance on the world stage.

Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi finished 1-2 in the men’s three-metre Wednesday, while Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani captured their third straight gold medal in women’s synchronized springboard at the World Aquatics Championships.

China didn’t enter the first two events of the meet, which comes just five months ahead of the Summer Games, but it has been nearly unbeatable since then.

Other than an 11th-place showing in men’s one-metre springboard, a non-Olympic event in which China entered only one diver, the diving superpower has taken gold in the other six disciplines. Most of them have been runaway victories.

Meanwhile, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands completed a sweep of the women’s individual open water races by taking gold in the five-kilometre at Old Doha Port. In a thrilling finish, Logan Fontaine of France won the men’s title in the non-Olympic event.

Xie led the preliminaries and semifinals at Hamad Aquatic Centre, but it was Wang who took control in the final. He ripped off one stellar dive after another on the way to a total score of 538.70, relegating Xie to the silver in 516.10.

It was the second gold of the championships for Wang, who teamed with Long Daoyi to capture the synchronized springboard title.

Wang and Xie have dominated the springboard in international competition and will head to Paris as huge favourites.

Osmar Olvera of Mexico grabbed his second medal of the championships, adding to his gold in 1 m springboards with a bronze. No one else was even close to the three medallists.