Chinese athletes shine at Aquatics Worlds

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Men's 3m springboard diving gold medallist Wang Zongyuan (2nd L) and silver medallist Cao Yuan (1st L), men's 10m synchronised diving medallists Yang Hao (2nd R) and Lian Junjie, all of China, pose for a photo at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, June 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

At a two-week World Aquatics Championships themed "Make History", Chinese athletes interpreted the slogan through their efforts and accomplishments.

On the last day of competition, when Yang Jian bounced back from an early deficit to win the men's 10m platform gold with his last dive of extremely high difficulty, he completed a Chinese clean sweep of 13 diving golds in Budapest.

"I believe in myself, and also my teammate," he said, with compatriot Yang Hao finishing with a bronze.

"When we saw our other teammates had secured titles for China in previous events, we were very envious but we knew that we could also do that," Yang Jian added.

For the first time, the all-conquering Chinese diving team pocketed all the golds on offer at an overseas World Championships. Such a feat goes one better than at the 2019 Worlds in Gwangju, South Korea, when China didn't participate in the mixed 3m synchronized, a non-Olympic event.

This time, Lin Shan and Zhu Zifeng won the title in that event.

In a remarkable mixed 3m and 10m team event, Olympic champion Quan Hongchan paired with Bai Yuming to win China's 100th World Championships diving gold medal.

China ranked second in the overall medal table with 18 golds, two silvers and eight bronzes, also tying with the leading United States in terms of gold medals.

"China is of course one of the top nations in the world of aquatics. I was really amazed by their performance, of course in diving they are by far the very best, but also in artistic swimming they did very nice routines," David Szanto, COO of the organizing committee, told Xinhua.

Four of China's golds came from artistic swimming, as twin sisters Wang Liuyi and Wang Qianyi won the women's duet free and duet technical titles, in addition to their triumphs in the team technical and team free.

"We have an almost new squad compared with last year's Olympic Games, but we completed the transition in the past seven months," said China's coach Zhang Xiaohuan.

"Our young athletes have learned a lot from this tournament, and I can see their progress, especially their mentality," Zhang said. "Winning the gold is very important, but one more important thing is to give the newcomers a chance to participate in the major tournament, accumulate experience and find out our weaknesses. Only through this can we better prepare for the Paris Olympic Games."

According to the organizers, a total of 2,370 athletes from 189 countries and regions took part in the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, which was organized with the help of some 5,000 people, including volunteers, security staff and caterers. 

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