After successfully organising the second leg of the FINA/LI-NING Diving World Series 2010 on April 16-17, Veracruz (MEX) will host the third and final meet of this circuit on April 20-21, replacing the competition in Sheffield (GBR), scheduled for April 23-24. This change is due to the severe flight restrictions on Europe, namely in Great Britain, following the dissemination of an ash cloud coming from a volcano in Iceland.

In the first rendezvous in Veracruz, the Chinese naturally continued their domination, winning seven out of the eight titles on offer. The only non-Chinese gold medal was secured by Canada’s Alexandre Despatie, who triumphed in the men’s 3m springboard. In the 10m platform, Bo Qiu (CHN) was better than Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham (AUS, second), while the 2009 world champion (Tom Daley, GBR) did not qualify for the final. In the 3m springboard synchro, local divers Daniel Islas and Julian Sanchez created the surprise of the meet, by finishing second.

Among women, Paola Espinosa (MEX), world champion in the 10m platform, was the athlete to watch for the hundreds of spectators in the Veracruz aquatic complex, and did not disappoint, with two silver medals, in the 3m springboard and in the 10m platform.

MEDALLISTS IN VERACRUZ (MEX, April 16-17)

Men’s 3m springboard: 1. Alexandre Despatie (CAN) 507.00; 2. Kai Qin (CHN) 493.20; 3. Yahel Castillo (MEX) 470.10
Men’s 10m platform: 1. Bo Qiu (CHN) 557.60; 2. Matthew Mitcham (AUS) 536.85; 3. Thomas Finchum (USA) 527.40
Men’s 3m springboard synchro: 1. Kai Qin/Xinhua Zhang (CHN) 432.75; 2. Daniel Islas/Julian Sanchez (MEX) 416.01; 3. Dmitry Sautin/Yuri Kunakov (RUS) 408.03
Men’s 10m platform synchro: 1. Yanquan Zhang/Yuan Cao (CHN) 436.20; 2. Sascha Klein/Patrick Hausding (GER) 434.31; 3. Thomas Finchum/Nick McCrory (USA) 421.47

Women’s 3m springboard: 1. Zi He (CHN) 385.15; 2. Paola Espinosa (MEX) 350.80; 3. Kelci Bryant (USA) 332.00
Women’s 10m platform: 1. Ruolin Chen (CHN) 400.50; 2. Paola Espinosa (MEX) 389.10; 3. Li Kang (CHN) 360.40
Women’s 3m springboard synchro: 1. Zi He/Wu Minxia (CHN) 324.00; 2. Emilie Heymans/Jennifer Abel (CAN) 303.00; 3. Abby Johnston/Kelci Bryant (USA) 300.90
Women’s 10m platform synchro: 1. Ruolin Chen/Hao Wang (CHN) 345.96; 2. Meaghan Benfeito/Roseline Filion (CAN) 336.39; 3. Melissa Wu/Alexandra Croak (AUS) 319.68