German divers shine

Germany stunned China when Patrick Hausding and Stephan Feck won the top spot in the men’s 3m synchro ahead of China’s Cao Yuan and Lin Yue in the late evening programme of the Dubai stopover of the Fina/NVC Diving World Series on Thursday the opening day, at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Emirates Road.

German divers Stephan Feck and Patrick Hausding dive to win the gold medal. — AFP

In the early sessions on Friday, the second day, the 3m springboard individual semi-finals for women and men were seen through.

On Day 2 the Chinese were back in form by qualifying first in the men’s and women’s 3m individual springboard events ahead of the night’s finals. The top three competitors in each semi-final move into the final. China as usual started its golden run in the morning session of Day 1, taking gold in the men’s and women’s 10m platform synchronised events.

World champs Shi Tingmao and Wu Minxia added to the Chinese gold tally — three golds from three individual events — by winning the women’s 3m synchro springboard final late on Thursday.

Hausding and Feck produced a stunning result to halt the Chinese progress in the men’s 3m synchro.

They took an early lead but were quickly overtaken by China, until the Chinese faltered on their third dive and dropped to fifth. Cao and Lin then produced the dive of the competition in the next round, a 5337D reverse 1½ somersault with 2½ that yielded 89.25, but it wasn’t enough to put them back into gold medal reckoning.

Hausding and Feck finished the 3m synchro final with a total of 432.12, edging out the Chinese by 8.19 points with a more consistent show in the final phases. Feck speaking to the media, said: “This is great, it’s good for our confidence. I know they’re not the top Chinese 3m pair but still good to get gold. We knew that a 432 score would place us well in any competition.”

“Consistency was the key, we are all so close that whoever misses a dive will miss the gold medal, so we are happy we produced solid dives,” added Hausding.

“The Chinese used to be so far ahead of everybody, it’s hard for them to improve a lot more and everyone else is getting better so it’s very close now. There’s not much difference between second and eighth in these competitions so you have to be very consistent and we did that tonight (Thursday).” Ukraines’ Illya Kvasha and Oleksandr Gorshkovozav, who took bronze in the 3m synchro event in the first event of the Diving World Series in Beijing last week, collected another bronze, finishing with 416.70.

The women’s 3m synchro final result was never in doubt. The Chinese current world champions Shi and Wu went into first place with their first dive and never relinquished that position. They outclassed the rest of the field, and finished with 335.40, 48.90 points ahead of Mexico’s Laura Sanchez and Arantxa Chavez (286.5) who landed silver.

Italians Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape missed one dive but managed to hang on for the bronze with 279.30, with Malaysia’s Jun Hoong Cheong and Yan Yee Ng finishing only 4.5 points behind in fourth (274.80).

“We only started back in December so we are getting back into competition. We missed one dive and that cost us but overall we are feeling good,” said Cagnotto. “The Chinese are many points in front so we have to be consistent all the time to catch up with them.” Entry is free for children under 12. Tickets at Dh40 per day are available at the door of the Hamdan Sports Complex on Emirates Road.