China wins two golds on first day of Diving World Cup

World
Europe

Chinese divers had a good start by winning two gold medals on the first day of the FINA Diving World Cup 2018 on June 4 in the city of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province.

Over 200 players from 26 countries and regions across the globe competed in 11 events during this biennale competition from June 4-10. China's Si Yajie and Lian Junjie won the mixed 10m synchro platform title and Qiu Bo and Chen Yiwen took the champion in the mixed team event.

The pair of Si and Lian achieved a total score of 353.31 points, beating the second-placed Canadian divers Caeli McKay and Vincent Riendeau and the bronze-medal winners Sergey Nazin and Valeriia Belova of Russia. The team of Qiu and Chen scored 406.2 points, while the Ukrainian divers Oleg Kolodiy and Sofiia Lyskun finished second and the US team of Krysta Palmer and David Dinsmore came in third.

China's Chen Yiwen (L) and Qiu Bo win gold medals in the mixed team event of FINA Diving World Cup in Wuhan on June 4. /Xinhua Photo

"It is a good start for me and for Team China. We trained together for three weeks and we performed our best today," said Si, former world champion and Rio 2016 silver medalist in the event of women's 10m platform.

The 18-year-old Lian was competing in the World Cup for the first time. "I was feeling good during the competition. Winning the gold in the first competition of the World Cup was perfect for me," Lian said.

For the Canadian divers, the silver media was beyond expectation since it was their first match as a pair. "As this is our first competition together, we are quite happy with how it finished. Our dives were pretty consistent," said the 18-year-old Caeli.

"I have done mixed synchro with another diver before but it's Caeli's and mine first time together. We are pleased with the synchronization part of our performance. We could have done better in some dives individually," Vincent added.

"In general, we have improved a lot compared to last year in the FINA World Championships in Budapest where we placed sixth and performed terrible," Qiu said.