China masterclass in diving

Dubai - There were close duels during the semifinal stages but the Asian powerhouse swept the board with a total of 10 gold medals at the end of the meet.

It was once again China who proved their class on the third and final night at the Fina/NVC Diving World Series Dubai 2016 at the Hamdan Sports Complex.
There were close duels during the semifinal stages but the Asian powerhouse swept the board with a total of 10 gold medals at the end of the meet.
The first event of the day saw China reaching the top spot in both groups of the women's 3-metre individual springboard semifinals but, by the afternoon, Jennifer Abel's determination and drive to improve on her entries and finesse paid off, as she earned a silver medal for Canada. With a total score of 378.20 points, Jennifer improved on her earlier performance by a 21.25 point margin. Shi Tingmao replicated her success of the morning competition, with 392.25 points earning her a gold medal and her fellow Chinese diver, Wang Han, claimed bronze with 374.40 points.
Shi said, "I give my performance a 7 out of 10. I feel I let myself down as I didn't perform as well as in the training. My fourth dive was where I lapsed and, in fact, I didn't perform so well in this dive in the training either. I think I need to give this more focus for improvement in the next competition."
Praising Jennifer, Wang , said "My performance was as good as during training but Jennifer was the strongest diver and all her dives were perfect during the final."
The early session of Saturday saw keen battles in the men's 10m individual platform semifinal, when Russia's Victor Minibaev pull off a spectacular win in the semifinals of his group, with an overall result advantage on both groups behind an impressive 528.60 points. The afternoon event lent itself to a thrilling final, where round one saw a flurry of 10 points awarded to the last four consecutive divers, David Boudia, Chen Aisen, Yang Hao and Victor Minibaev.
In a well fought episode, China's Yang Hao held onto his number one spot from the semifinal group stage, taking gold in the final with 569.30 points. A mere 0.15 points behind was Yang's Chinese counterpart, Chen Aisen, who scored 569.15 points. Despite a well fought battle, Victor could not maintain his top spot of the morning, but finished in third place, taking bronze with an admirable 530.85.
Yang said: "This is the first time I take part in the World Series individual 10m and I think my performance was good. The other divers were strong but this was my first time so I didn't have the pressure. I just aim to perform at my training level."
Victor's morning performance looked like it may have paved the way for a gold medal in the final, but he was pleased to be taking away bronze. "I am satisfied with my performance and happy to finish in third place, though I am a little tired.
In the last event of the competition, the 3m springboard mixed synchro event saw China's pairing, Wang Han and Yang Hao taking gold with 337.50 points, ahead of Canada's Jennifer Abel and Francois Imbeau-Dulac on 323.46 points. Russian duo Kristina Ilinykh and Nikita Shleikher claimed bronze with 302.43 points.