Qin and He triumph in 3m synchro final
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E-mail China.org.cn, July 24, 2013
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China's Qin Kai (L) and He Chong pose during the awarding ceremony after the men's 3m synchro springboard final of the diving competition at the 15th FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, on July 23, 2013. (Xinhua/Xie Haining) |
Double Olympic champion Qin Kai clinched an unprecedented fourth successive men's 3m synchro springboard gold, triumphing with new partner He Chong.
The victory was China's fifth in six diving finals so far contested in the Montjuic Municipal Pool and the second of the day, following Zi He's narrow win over Italy's Tania Cagnotto in the women's 1m springboard final. Qin and He led throughout to amass 448.86 points and win by 20.85 points but it was not an entirely straightforward victory on a day when none of the pairs was immune from error.
Russia's Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilia Zakharov settled for silver again (428.01), while Mexicans Jahir Ocampo and Rommel Pacheco proved steadier than some of their more fancied rivals to take bronze (422,79).
The Chinese pair took charge in the opening round and extended their lead in the second, when they led Kuznetsov and Zakharov by 5.40 points, with Germany, the USA and Ukraine bunched closely a little way behind.
Ocampo and Pacheco vaulted into second place in the third round as the Russians dropped to fifth, while Qin and Kai moved further clear at the top, having notched the highest scores in each round by the halfway point of the six-dive final. The fourth round brought grief in turn for the German, Russian and Chinese pairs but Qin and He clung to a reduced lead ahead of the USA and Mexico. The Russians roared back in the fifth with the highest score of the final to move back to second but Qin and He proved equal to the challenge, nailing their final forward 4.5 somersaults for a 92.34 score and gold.
Qin, twice Olympic champion in the 3m synchro, had also won this event at the 2007, 2009 and 2011 Worlds, while He claimed gold in 2005. Qin was also individual 3m world champion in 2007, while He was victorious in 2009 and 2011.
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