World champions Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing of China defeated injury and their rivals to win the women's 3m synchronized diving gold medal at the 14th Asian Games on Tuesday.

The pair collected 319.80 points from five dives, beating SouthKorean duo Kang Min-kyung and Im Sung-young, who had 248.04 points,to the second place.

Abdullah Farah Begum and Leong Mun Yee won Malaysia its first ever Asiad diving medal with a 245.34 total.

"It's true we were both injured. We both knocked our legs during training but it didn't hamper us too much," said Guo, a veteran at 20 who partnered the world diving wonder girl Fu Mingxia to take Olympic silver in the event two years ago.

Both divers had bandages on their shins but they still managed to pull 25 points clear of South Korea after the first three dives.

They took risks to rack up the points, perfectly executing a backward two-and-half somersault on their third dive as their rivals stuck to the easier forward two-and-a-half somersault

Their gamble paid off with a perfect 10 from the Thai judge forsynchronization -- the only 10 of the morning.

They capped their performance with a delightful reverse two-and-a-half somersault to the roars of an appreciative crowd.

It is the first gold in diving decided at the Asian Games. China is expected to clinch all eight diving golds on offer in Busan.

China collected every gold in Bangkok at the last Asiad four years ago.

The men's 10m synchronized platform is decided later Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2002)