Team China underlined their supremacy over the rest of the nations at the fourth and last leg of the FINA/NVC Diving World Series in Kazan, Russia, winning nine gold medals over the three-day event. Overall, out of 40 finals contested in the 2016 circuit, the Asian powerhouse triumphed on 38 occasions! Russia’s Ilia Zakharov/Evgenii Kuznetsov were the exception in Kazan as the pair claimed the gold in the 3m synchro event in 437.76 on Day 1, over Great Britain’s Christopher Mears/Jack Laugher (silver) and Ukraine’s Ilya Kvasha/Oleksandr Gorshkovozov (bronze). No Chinese pair took part in this event.
Olympic champion Cao Yuan triumphed (521.90) in his pet event, the 3m, while Russia’s Zakharov placed second in front of home crowd, defeating 2015 World champion He Chao (CHN) by a small difference (520.70 against 520.15). Chen Aisen topped the 10m in front of Tom Daley (GBR) and Qiu Bo (CHN) who took silver at the previous leg in Windsor last weekend.
In the women’s competition, 3m specialist He Zi (CHN) won the event (388.20), while Italy’s most famous diver Tania Cagnotto took silver in 362.20 and Maddison Keeney from Australia claimed bronze (352.15). Platform queen Ren Qian won the event with 367.35, for the second consecutive time in this Series (Windsor). Great Britain and China completed the podium in this order.
China, Canada, Australia, Russia and divers competing under the FINA flag were the nations on the podium for the mixed events.
Team China is topping the ranking of every event but the Men’s 3m synchronised, that Ukraine won in the overall ranking.
MEDALLISTS IN KAZAN (RUS):
Men
3m springboard: 1. Cao Yuan (CHN) 521.90; 2. Ilia Zakharov (RUS) 520.70; 3.He Chao (CHN) 520.15
10m platform: 1. Chen Aisen (CHN) 572.40; 2. Thomas Daley (GBR) 554.60; 3. Qiu Bo (CHN) 554.00
3m springboard synchro: 1. Ilia Zakharov/Evgenii Kuznetsov (RUS) 437.76; 2. Christopher Mears/Jack Laugher (GBR) 423.24; 3. Ilya Kvasha/Oleksandr Gorshkovozov (UKR) 418.68
10m platform synchro: 1. Lin Yue/Chen Aisen (CHN) 485.67; 2. Maksym Dolgov/Oleksandr Gorshkovozov (UKR) 450.87; 3. Daniel Goodfellow/Thomas Daley (GBR) 442.59Women
3m springboard: 1. He Zi (CHN) 388.20; 2. Tania Cagnotto (ITA) 362.20; 3. Maddison Keeney (AUS) 352.15
10m platform: 1. Ren Qian (CHN) 367.35; 2. Tonia Couch (GBR) 365.90; 3. Si Yajie (CHN) 353.70
3m springboard synchro: 1. He Zi/Wang Han (CHN) 329.40; 2. Tania Cagnotto/Francesca Dallape (ITA) 309.18; 3. Anastasiia Nedobiga/Viktoriya Kesar (UKR) 291.06
10m platform synchro: 1. Chen Ruolin/Liu Huixia (CHN) 340.50; 2. Roseline Filion/Meaghan Benfeito (CAN) 304.50; 3. Mun Yee Leong/Pandelela Pamg (MAS) 303.42Mixed
3m springboard synchro: 1. Wang Han/Yang Hao (CHN) 330.30; 2. Dolores Hernandez/Jahir Ocampo (SMF) 327.06; 3. Jennifer Abel/François Imbeau-Dulac (CAN) 321.36
10m platform synchro: 1. Tai Xiaohu/Chang Yani (CHN) 355.38; 2. Melissa Wu/Domonic Bedggood (AUS) 330.84; 3. Yulia Timoshinina/Nikita Shleikher (RUS) 320.40
Swimming news courtesy of FINA.