BUDAPEST – Two plotlines quickly crystalized in the women’s 10-meter diving final on Monday night at Duna Arena: the all-China battle for gold and silver, and a markedly quotidian contest for bronze.

After five dives, Chen Yuxi won her second consecutive world title by a droplet (0.30 points), defeating her countrywoman, Quan Hongchan, a farmer’s daughter who won the Olympic gold medal last summer in Tokyo at age 14 by amassing 24 perfect scores (out of 35 possible), including 10s from all seven judges on two of her dives.

In Monday’s rematch at the FINA World Championships, Chen and Quan performed their Tokyo Olympic dives again, in the same order as they had in Japan. So all eyes were on the scoreboard. How many 10s would be awarded? Ultimately, there were just four (three to Quan, one to Chen), but none of them counted because in diving, the two highest (and two lowest) scores per dive are discarded.

The vocal crowd didn’t care.

After the victory Chen said, “It is an honor to see this many Chinese fans in the arena, it was a glorious feeling.” And although she won with 417.25 points, Chen said, “I am not totally satisfied. I wasn’t concentrating on my score, I was concentrating on myself.”

Meanwhile, the silver medalist Quan had an exceptional meet. She exceeded 400 points for the night and out-scored all 12 finalists on four (of the five) rounds of dives.  Her third dive was the killer, however. On Quan’s back 3½ somersault tuck (called a 207C, with 3.3 degree of difficulty), her takeoff was a bit too vertical. She sacrificed momentum, was slow in the air, and entered the water diagonally, earning 61.05 points.

Nonetheless, Quan said, “I am very happy and proud to be on the podium with my team-mate, but next time I’ll try to get gold. The fans gave me so much power, I felt the energy coming from the stands!”

Four-time Olympian Pandelela Pamg of Malaysia took the bronze, a full 78.4 points behind Chen. Pamg was also the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist.

“I guess we can say it was my redemption,” Pamg said afterwards.  “I see every success and every failure as a motivation.” At 29, “this medal shows me that I can still compete individually.”

China has now claimed a medal in the women's 10-meter platform event in 16 consecutive FINA World Championships (since 1982). In addition, Monday’s 1-2 finish marked the 12th time during that streak that China placed two women on the podium.

Diving will continue on Tuesday with the men’s 3-meter finals and men’s 10-meter synchro finals.