China divers start in style

China’s Liu Huixia and Chen Ruolin claim the gold. — Supplied photo

However as the event progressed into the final dives, the duo finished second with 314.64, 22.92 points behind the Chinese gold medallists and world champions Chen Ruolin and Liu Huixia on the opening day of the 3-day Fina/NVC Diving World Series Dubai 2014 which finishes on Saturday at the Hamdan Sports Complex .

The Malaysian duo said: “Overall we did ok today (Thursday), better than our Beijing bronze. Our coordination was good but felt a tired. We’ll just have to keep training hard and work more on our synchro.” The ‘Chinese Dragon’ kicked off their campaign quickly in their own special style, taking the first two gold medals in convincing fashion on Day 1.

The schoolchildren at the complex were able to soak in what world beating diving is all about during Thursday’s early sessions. Entry is free for children under 12.

Chen and Liu the hot favourites after taking gold in the first round of the series in Beijing last weekend, maintained their form, taking the lead with their first dive and never letting it slip, finishing with 337.56. Their final dive, 5253B, back 2 ½ somersault 1 ½ twists, earned them 82.56, an all-time high.

Canadians Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion, who took silver in Beijing had to settle for bronze with 309.09.

In the men’s 10m synchro platform China’s Lin Yue and Cao Yuan dominated from start. “We are happy with this result, we dived well today (Thursday) and our synchro was good. We scored better than Beijing” said Lin.

According to the execution judge, their first dive, a 101B forward dive pike, scored the first 10 of the competition. Their top scoring dive of the day was 97.68 for a 109C forward 4 ½ tuck, which gave them an unassailable lead and saw them finish with 475.32, 37.56 points ahead of the German world champions Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding. Great Britain’s Daniel Goodfellow and Matthew Lee added another bronze to the one they picked up in Beijing, finishing with 380.52.

Ahmed Al Falasi, president of the UAE Swimming Federation said: “We are delighted to see these amazing divers competing again in Dubai. It is exciting to see world class diving again, and we look forward to enjoying the competition over the next two and a half days.”

The action for the day included the opening featuring a display by local diving club DuDive, before the women’s 3m springboard synchro final, and the men’s 3m springboard synchro.

Friday’s will see 3m individual springboard semi-finals for men and women run from 10-12noon, with the finals from 5-7pm. The final day of competition on Saturday sees the 10m platform semi-finals from 10-12noon, followed by the finals from 5-7pm. Also the UAE Swimming Federation will offer children the opportunity to compete in a series of fun 50m swimming races ‘Fast Fifties’ swum in a 25m format. The event will be held from 3pm- 4.30pm and is open to all beginner swimmers aged 8-12.

The races will be in the following format: 50m freestyle, 50 backstroke and 4x50 freestyle relay. The programme will also run on Saturday in the following format: 50m breaststroke, 50 butterfly and 4x50 IM relay. Registration can be done on the day or in advance to uaeswimmingfederation@gmail.com. Tickets to catch all the action at the Fina/NVC Diving World Series are available at the door at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Emirates Road. Tickets are priced at Dh40.