Roundup: China adds diving gold, silver in final diving competition at FINA worlds

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GWANGJU, South Korea, July 20 (Xinhua) -- China added a gold and a silver medal in diving on the final day of the diving competition at the 18th FINA World Championships in the South Korean city of Gwangju on Saturday.

China's Yang Jian, who won gold in the mixed 3m and 10m team diving of these championships, took another gold in the men's 10m platform final, finishing in 598.65 points.

The double-gold medalist was closely trailed by his teammate Yang Hao who scored 585.75 to claim silver.

The Chinese divers showed an impressive, neck-and-neck contest. Yang Hao secured a perfect score from all judges in his fourth dive and a nearly perfect scoring in the fifth, but he failed to overcome the stable, world-class teammate.

"I am in an even better form during today's match than in training, possibly encouraged by the good performance of my teammate," noted Yang Jian who said he could not help giving a thumb to himself for his performance.

The gold medalist vowed to continue hard and solid training in the future to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games next year.

With the additional gold, team China snatched 12 out of the 13 diving gold medals at stake. China remained atop the medal table with 13 golds, nine silvers and one bronze. Russia followed with nine golds, four silvers and one bronze.

The one diving gold, which China missed, went to Australia. Australian diving duo Maddison Keeney and Matthew Carter took gold in the mixed synchronized 3m springboard, scoring 304.86 points after five attempts.

Canada's Francois Imbeau-Dulac and Jennifer Abel won silver, less than one point behind the Australian frontrunners. Germany's Lou Massenberg and Tina Punzel came away with bronze in 301.62.

Chinese divers withdrew to help Yang Hao focus on the men's 10m platform. The mixed 3m synchro was introduced at the 2015 Kazan world championships, and China won the first two titles.

In artistic swimming, Chinese team scored 96.5667 points to secure silver in the women's team free combination. It was 1.4333 points short of overcoming the artistic swimming powerhouse Russia which snatched gold. Ukraine took bronze in 94.5333.

Russia added one more artistic swimming gold in the mixed duet free routine. Russia's Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev finished in 92.9667 points, 1.1334 ahead of Manila Flamini and Giorgio Minisini of Italy who won silver. Japan's Yumi Adachi and Atsushi Abe came away with bronze with 90.4000.

Maltsev became the first male artistic swimmer to secure two golds at the world championships. He captured gold in the mixed duet technical, teaming up with Gurbanberdieva on Monday.

In the women's water polo, the Netherlands, Hungary, Greece and Australia advanced into quarterfinals in the round of 16 matches.

The Netherlands had a narrow victory over Canada 5-4, managing to advance to the quarterfinals. Hungary pounded New Zealand 17-6, and Greece beat China 12-8. Australia had an easy 13-3 victory over Kazakhstan.

Spain, Italy, the United States and Russia already punched their tickets to the quarterfinals by winning three straight games in group matches.

The swimming portion of the Gwangju worlds will start Sunday, with a total of 42 gold medals on offer in the pool. The first four golds will be awarded on the first day.

Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang will compete Sunday for his fourth straight title in the men's 400m freestyle. China sent a squad of 43 swimmers to the worlds. Enditem

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