DWS 2016, Dubai: Another perfect day for China!

In the first individual events at the second leg of the FINA/NVC Diving World Series in Dubai (UAE), Chinese made the 1-2 in the women’s 10m platform and in the men’s 3m springboard. The seventh gold medal out of the seven events contested so far in the Hamdan Sports Complex was obtained in the mixed 10m synchro platform event.

In the women’s 10m platform, Si Yajie, silver medallist in the 2016 World Cup and winner in Beijing (at the first meet of the World Series) was in the lead until the fourth round, but an outstanding fifth and last dive by Liu Huixia reversed the final outcome of the competition. Everything happened with the same combination: a back 2 ½ somersaults 1 ½ twists, in the pike position. While Si amassed 81.60 for this attempt, Liu was much better, with her 86.40 score.

This difference was sufficient to alter the distribution of the gold (for Liu, in a total of 397.30) and silver (for Si, in 395.15). The bronze medal went to Australia’s Melissa Wu in 382.60 – she was also third in Beijing last weekend, as well as in Rio, during the FINA Diving World Cup.

Asked about her performance, Liu explained: “I feel very happy and overall satisfied with some dives. It’s difficult as I have a sore wrist and that’s why my personal performance was not as good as during the training session for this dive. I guess that’s just normal to happen during big competitions like this one.” 

Australian’s Melissa Wu was also joyous over her bronze win: “I improved a lot from this morning which I am happy about and I got a really good score as well. I think that my last dive could have been a little bit better. That’s usually one of my strongest dives, but today it wasn’t so good so I still have room to improve. I’ll go home and keep working harder and try to make sure that all my dives are as good as they can be.”

Among men, the duel in the 3m springboard wasn’t so much between the first two of the podium, but rather to determine the silver and bronze medallist. Cao Yuan (CHN, and victorious in Beijing) was always very confident in the lead and had only minor problems with his reverse 3 ½ somersaults (tuck), earning gold in 535.65. The duel of the day in the event was between the other Chinese of the final, He Chao, and Rommel Pacheco, competing under the FINA flag.

He had an erratic final, but his impressive forward 4 ½ somersaults in the tuck position (his sixth dive) provided a massive 104.50 points, including the first perfect 10 here in Dubai. From fourth ranked before the last round, He grabbed silver, overcoming Pacheco (507.80 against 505.80).

“Taking first place leaves me very satisfied with my performance today,” said Cao.

His teammate He was more critical: “I faced some problems due to nerves in the beginning of the final, but for the last three dives I got better and better”. The Chinese is modest of his score of 10: “I don’t think about it too much, I just want to do my best”.

Some minutes later, two other 10s crowned the very consistent programme of Chinese duet in the mixed 10m synchro platform: Tai Xiaohu and Chang Yani earned the seventh gold for their country in Dubai, totalling 349.74, in a final highlighted by a superb fourth dive: an inward 3 ½ somersaults in the tuck position, which the judges (and many spectators in the venue) liked a lot. It was the end of a perfect day for China. The minor medals went for Canada (silver, with Meaghan Benfeito and Vincent Riendeau, in 307.38) and Russia (bronze, with Yulia Timoshinina and Nikita Shleikher, in 305.22).

On their performance, China’s Tai Xiaohu considered: “For the mixed synchro, the level of difficulty is different and it requires a lot of cooperation between us”.

Winning her second silver at the Dubai leg and gaining second place again in the mixed synchro’s following Beijing, Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito was delighted with her achievement: “It was way better than in Beijing last week. I think we gave very solid dives and our synchro was a lot stronger than last week. It’s good to start off the year with two medals and as we are just getting back into it, it was a good start”.   

Vincent’s perspective mirrored that of Meaghan’s as he added: “It was definitely an improvement compared to Beijing. I think what really made the difference compared to Beijing was my entries. Last week I had a little bit of trouble with my entries on the last three dives, here the third and fifth dive were a lot better so I got higher scores and contributed to getting better scores in general”.