Chinese 18-year-old Yang Hao picked up two gold medals on Saturday, including his first major individual title as China completed a clean sweep at the 2016 Fina Diving World Series Dubai leg.
Yang, who won his first major title at the 2015 Aquatics World Championships in the 3m springboard mixed synchronised event, edged out a decorated field for the showcase men’s 10m platform title. It included London 2012 gold medal winner David Boudia of the United States, who finished fourth, and his compatriot and 2016 Fina Diving World Cup silver medallist Chen Aisen, who took silver at the Hamdan Sports Complex.
Russian Victor Minibaev, who placed fourth at the London 2012 Games, took bronze at the Dubai World Series event.
Yang edged Chen by just 0.15 points for gold, 569.30 to 569.15 through six dives. Chen scored the best two dives of the round, his last two, with 103.60 points for a forward 4 1/2 somersaults in the tuck position and then 102.60 points for a backward 2 1/2 somersaults-2 1/2 twists in the pike position. But his second dive registered just 78.75 points and he could not overcome his consistent countryman, whose scores ranged 89.25-97.20 across the six attempts.
Yang’s best score, 97.20, was awarded for his third dive (backward 3 1/2 somersaults pike) and last (backward 2 1/2 somersaults-2 1/2 twists pike).
“This is the first time I take part in the World Series individual 10m and I think my performance was good,” Yang said in a press release. “The other divers were strong but this was my first time so I didn’t have the pressure. I just aim to perform at my training level.”
Britain’s London 2012 bronze winner Tom Daley, a star of the sport, disappointingly did not reach the final after earlier in the day finishing fourth in his semi-final group.
Yang then made it a perfect evening, and a perfect 10-for-10 in golds for the Chinese, by pairing with Wang Han for the mixed 3m springboard title.
Yang and Wang were nearly perfect, scoring four of five of the round’s top dives to comfortably beat Jennifer Abel and Francois Imbeau-Dulac of Canada.
Kristina Ilinykh and Nikita Shleikher of Russia took third.
In the first event of Day 3, the women’s 3m springboard final, Shi Tingmao, who won four of the six 3m individual golds on last year’s World Series circuit, outpaced Abel and compatriot Wang to add to a gold-medal tally over the last few years that also includes victories at the 2016 Diving World Cup and 2015 World Aquatics Championships.
China, as a team, took 50 of the 60 golds across the six meets of the 2015 Diving World Series, and were a perfect 10-for-10 in the 2016 World Series opening leg in Beijing earlier this month before completing another perfect 10 -for-10 in Dubai on Saturday.
“Indeed, China are a masterclass in their field and have dominated the scoreboards throughout the competition, but it has been good to see the other nations competing hard,” said Ahmed Al Falasi, president of the UAE Swimming Federation.
On Friday Tai Xiaohu and Chang Yani won the mixed 10m synchronised event, Cao Yuan won the men’s 3m springboard title and Liu Huixia won women’s 10m platform gold.
Cao and Qin Kai (men’s 3m synchro); He Zi and Wang (women’s 3m synchro); Chen and Lin Yue (men’s 10m synchro); and Liu and Si Yajie (women’s 10m synchro) started the Chinese march to perfection on Thursday.
The Diving World Series has two more events, in Windsor, Canada and then Kazan, Russia, before the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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