China swept victories in all four synchro events on offer on the first day of the Diving World Cup in the historic Chinese city.

Mena Jesus, vice chairman of Diving Technical Committee, gave a speech after the performance of traditional Chinese Opera dancing and singing at the opening ceremony. 

“It is a perfect place for the introduction of the first new event in Diving for many years. In the next three days, we will see the elite divers of the world perform at their best," Jesus said. "This extraordinary facility provides them with the opportunity to be at their most impressive."

Women's Synchronised 10m Platform

With 1853 patrons watching the morning session, Chen Yuxi and Quan Hongchan – the world champion team from last year's Budapest worlds and the Berlin World Cup – drove local fans into a frenzy as they performed first of the whole competition and grabbed six perfect marks from four of the five dives. The teens led all the way by scoring a first 10-point in their second dive in the Reverse Dive Pike, two more in a Forward 3 1/2 Somersault Tuck, and one each in the Inward 3 1/2 Somersault Tuck and in their 5253 Pike.

Considered the most captivating pair in the Chinese diving team, the Chen/Quan duo collected a total of 373.20 points for the first title of the World Cup, followed by the Andrea Spendolini Sirieix/Lois Toulson pairing for Great Britain 310.44 and Christina Wassen/Elena Wassen from Germany 282.78, respectively. Kseniia Bailo/Sofia Esman of Ukraine came to fourth place in 271.74

"I felt excited to compete in front of the full-house audience but in fact, we did not perform to our best this morning," said the 16-year-old Quan, who won the women's 10m platform in Tokyo Olympic Games with a record-high point total of 466.20.

"We had a good start of the season and thanks to the support from the local audience, especially on a Friday morning because it is a normal working day for most of the people," two-time world champion Yuxi said.

The British pair was happy to mark their new personal bests in Xi'an.

"I was really happy with how I and Lois did today as it was our third competition together. We did our PB. It's so nice to start with synchro because it's fun," Commonwealth champion Spendolini Sirieix said. "We weren't that nervous which was great. It was just enjoying and excitement. We enjoyed the competition. It's nice to have spectators and the cheering makes you want to dive and do good."

For the Wassen sisters, Christina and Elena felt nervous but enjoyed the competition. "We were really, really nervous in the first competition because it's such a big audience here. We had so much fun at such a nice pool though we did not perform our best. We will improve next time, " elder sister Elena said.

Kseniia Bailo/Sofia Esman of Ukraine said they worked together for three months. "We are a new pair and it was our first competition and I think the performance is good," Bailo said.

Men's Synchronised 10m Platform

The Chinese pairing of Yang Hao and Lian Junjie had a high-flying start with 3 full marks from the first two dives but then performed below-par in Inward 3 1/2 Somersault Tuck and Reverse 3 1/2 Somersault Tuck. The Chinese duo then returned to the right track by claiming victory in 457.23.

Team GB's Lee Matthew and Noah Williams came to second 418.98 with the Ukraine pairing of Oleksii Sereda and Kirill Boliukh taking third 395.01. Brazilians Diogo Silva/Isaac Souza Filho and Kim Yeongtaek/Yi Jaegyeong of South Korea finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Yang, a native in Xi'an, said he was nervous in front of home crowds and found it difficult to control himself. "I was touched by the cheers from the audience to every pair today. It took us some time to adjust ourselves from nerves to enjoyment," Yang said.

Lee Matthew – a Tokyo Olympic champion together with Thomas Daley in the event – and silver medalist with Noah Williams since the World Aquatics Championships - Budapest 2022, marvelled at the competition venue.

"The whole venue and facility here is really good and the pools are always amazing because I felt diving is very respected here," Matthew said. "It's always like to read a beautiful book while competing here."

Women's Synchronised 3m Springboard

Unlike the other winning pair, Chen Yiwen/Chang Yani from the hosts made a big difference on the synchronization in their Reverse Pike with 46.20, the third finish among the five pairs at the second-round dive.

"It is just like Murphy's Law that I always start faster than my partner and I was worried about that before the race. It came true finally in our second dive. We should be more stable than that and should work harder on the synchronization in training," said Chang.     

Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper of Great Britain took the silver medals in 281.43, ahead of Lena Hentschel/Jana Lisa Rother of Germany 265.26. Nais Gillet/Jade Gillet of France came to forth 243.48 and Lira Luana/Anna Lucia Rodrigues Martins Dos Santos of Brazil fifth.

"We started to be a pair only after we arrived in Xi'an. We had to do a couple of jumps together for three day's training," Harper said. "We were happy with the happy ending with silvers."

Rother also worked with a new partner as her former partner retired. "We didn't show all of our best lives today, but we were pretty happy with the bronze medals. We are looking forward to the next competition of the World Cups."

It has never been a problem for the French sisters Gillet. "I have been diving together with my younger sister Nais since we were 5. We always dive together and we are happy to have our first competition here this year. It's not bad," Jade said.

Men's 3m Springboard Synchronised

As a newly-formed partner pairing, Long Daoyi and Wang Zongyuan met no troubles in both of their individual technique and synchronization on the springboard, winning in 484.74 in the event while Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher from Britain sealed the silver medals in 414.75 and the German duo Lars Rudiger/Moritz Wesemann took the bronze in 389.34. 

Wang revealed they started to be partners two weeks ago and felt comfortable very soon. "We felt match up to each other on the dives but the only problem was that Long jumped too high at first which might have lead me out of my pace. Today we performed well and didn't feel nervous at all," said the triple world champion in Budapest.

Jack Laugher was glad to return to Xi’an and loved the Terracotta Warrior event mascot.

"It’s a lovely mascot. I was very happy with our performance since my partner got a bad ankle injury in the winter and could not dive for two months. It's been a very slow recovery since we didn't do our national championships. We haven't done any competitions before the World Cup. 

"This is our first event together this year," Laugher added. "The world championships were very good for us. Our score was 40 less than what we did in last year's Budapest worlds, but today we showed some very good things in the synchronization. We just need to be sharper on the end of our dives to get a better score." 

Rudiger on the Germany pair: "It was a very grateful experience. We just started training one week ago and just had a few training sessions. It was a great outcome and I'm very grateful."

Coming Next

The individual women’s and men’s 3m springboard are coming up on April 15th.