China’s Yang Jian claims national diving gold in 10m platform

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01:27

Yang Jian claimed the gold medal at the National Diving Championships in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China, capping a great tournament for the Chinese diving prospects in future international events on Sunday.

Earlier, five divers fought for two spots at the upcoming Gwangju World Championships in July with Yang eventually standing out to secure his place in the prestigious event.

The 2014 World Cup champion grabbed the lead in the second round and was able to hold on to win the title with 557.40 points, adding to his victory in the first stop to book a berth for the upcoming Worlds.

2016 Rio Olympics champion Chen Aisen claimed silver despite having a fever and an injury on his left foot.

Another diver in trouble was Qiu Bo. The London Olympics silver medalist was also dealing with an injury to his left foot and only managed to score 63 points on dive 626B. He went on to finish third.

At the end of the contest, only Yang was able to secure a spot in the 10-meter platform at the upcoming World Championships. Chen, Qiu, Yang Hao, and Lian Junjie shared second place after two stops. The final list of divers for the July event will be released by the end of May.

"I don't think my performance today was good enough, and my teammates may have felt some pressure, which caused some big mistakes. Actually, I also made some mistakes, so all of us didn't perform that well," Yang said after his victory.

Earlier on Saturday, local favorite and Rio Olympics champion in the women's 3-meter springboard, Shi Tingmao, grabbed her second gold after winning the synchronized event with Wang Han on Wednesday.

The Chongqing native's result also secured her a spot in the Gwangju World Championships. Wang, who came second overall after taking silver with 394.05 points, also secured a place for the July event.

Meanwhile, the 2017 Budapest World Championships winner Xie Siyi won the top honor in the men's 3-meter springboard.

His final score of 553.10 points was enough for him to secure the gold and also qualify for the Gwangju meet.

The 2012 London Olympics champion Cao Yuan took silver and ranked second overall to qualify for the Worlds.

Last Friday, Sichuan's Lu Wei claimed her second gold in the women's 10-meter platform, after winning the title in the synchronized event with Zhang Jiaqi one day earlier. The 13-year-old and her partner Zhang defeated 2017 World Championship winners Si Yajie and Ren Qian on Thursday. Zhang Minjie took silver and Chen Yuxi grabbed bronze.

In the women's 10-meter platform synchronized event, youngsters Zhang Jiaqi and Lu Wei outclassed veterans Si Yajie and Ren Qian to win gold. Since Si and Ren won in the Beijing leg of the event, team officials will now have to choose which pair to send to the Gwangju meet.

In the men's 3-meter synchronized springboard, Xie Siyi and Cao Yuan, who won the previous stop in Beijing with a surprising 490.44 points, also did well in Chongqing. The duo claimed the title once again with 474.96 points to secure their ticket to the upcoming World Championships.