China’s Minxia Wu and Zi He finished gold and silver, respectively, on the women’s 3 meter springboard to continue China’s streak at 9-for-9 in diving golds at this World Championship. The pair were in a bit of a duel, as from the very first dive they put huge separation between themselves and the rest of the field. The pair, who previously paired up for gold in the 3-meter synchro competition, had a great competition, and though Zi finished the competition very strong (with back-to-back 81’s), a miss on her 3rd dive (a 3.0 DD that earned her 4’s and 5’s) put the competition in the hands of Wu. The bronze medalist was Jennifer Abel in Canada, who by 15-points easily cleared the USA’s Christina Loukas. Loukas was very consistent throughout the competition, but without one spectacular dive in her lineup was unable to medal…
…China will complete their quest to become the first nation to ever go 10-for-10 in diving events tomorrow in the men’s 10m final. China’s Qiu Bo was the easy leader in the semi-final, by 75 points, though those scores are erased before the final. Qiu was the 2009 silver medalists, behind Britain’s Tom Daley, who looked off in the semi-final to qualify 6th. Americans David Boudia and Nick McCrory are trying to recreate the battle they preformed at last year’s NCAA Championships. McCrory, the NCAA champion last year, ranked higher than Boudia in the prelims, but Boudia roared back in semi-finals to place 4th thanks to a hot start (with the highest-scoring first dive). McCrory qualified 7th…
…This Championship has been swirled with controversies like Cesar Cielo’s drug tests and the open water temperatures, but at least one potential crisis was averted. Jessica Hardy, via Twitter, said that “There are Chinese FDA officials in our hotel during every meal – really grateful for the steps being taken to ensure we have safe food!”. There were concerns about the food system being contaminated with banned substances that farmers illegally use to beef-up cattle, and can cause a positive test in athletes who eat it. Though China was not able to offer an “athletes village” like they did for the Olympics, they presented a list of “safe-restaurants and hotels” for the athletes to eat at, and thus far it sounds as though they are standing by their pledge. They have enacted some fairly severe punishments for any restaurant caught in violation of food-safety measures…
…Psych sheets are finally released, though there are a few errors in entry times to be corrected. A few subplots include Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swimming side-by-side in the 200 free prelims; and Roland Schoeman and Cesar Cielo swimming side-by-side in the prelims of the 50-fly (lanes 3 and 4 of the final heat, respectively). Schoeman, you will recall, was publicly very critical of Cielo and the CAS after the decision to not suspend him was announced. It’s not clear how much has gotten around on the pool-deck, but Cielo is reported to have totally shut himself off from the media and the internet, so it’s possible that he doesn’t have any idea about Schoeman’s reaction. Either way, that could result in an awkward moment, if not for them certainly for the fans watching…