Olympic champions Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan of China topped the preliminaries of the men’s 10-meter synchronized platform diving at the world championships on Sunday.
China’s He Zi followed suit to lead qualification for the women’s 1-meter springboard.Cao and Zhang posted the best score of 460.74 points through six dives to ease into the final later Sunday.The pair only got stronger as the morning session went on and look poised to win gold after earning a classification-best score of 96.12 for a backward pike with two-and-half somersaults and two-and-a-half twists on their final effort.
China has won the last three Olympic titles in the event and is aiming for a record fourth consecutive world title.Germany’s Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding, silver medalists at the 2011 worlds, had the second best score of 433.50, while Mexico’s German Sanchez and Ivan Garcia, silver medalists at the 2012 Olympics, were third with 427.44.
The other teams to advance to the final were Russia, Ukraine, Cuba, South Korea, Italy, United States, North Korea, Belarus and Colombia.China’s He, who won gold in the women’s 1-meter springboard at the age of 16 in the 2007 worlds, collected the highest score in classification for Tuesday’s final through five dives for a total of 287.70 points. She was followed by Italy’s Tania Cagnotto with 284.85 points.
Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape claimed silver in the 3-meter synchronized springboard on Saturday, second to China’s Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao in the first diving medals of the competition.China’s Wang Han was right behind in third with 284 points. She is also well placed to medal after winning a silver and a bronze in 1-meter springboard from the previous two world championships.
The other divers to reach the final are: Jun Hoong Cheong (Malaysia), Deidre Freeman (United States), Pamela Ware (Canada), Tina Punzel (Germany), Dolores Hernandez (Mexico), Daria Govor (Russia), Uschi Freitag (Netherlands), Brittany Broben (Australia), and Daniella Nero (Sweden).Diving continues at the Montjuic Municipal pool with its spectacular views of the Barcelona skyline through July 28.
The biennial world championship, which runs until Aug. 4, also includes swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming, water polo and the new discipline of high diving.