China showed its depth on Day four of diving, claiming yet another gold medal en route to a potential repeat of last year’s sweep of all 13 diving world titles.

So far, eight down, five to go.

In the lone final on Tuesday, the team event, China’s foursome of Si Yajie and Zheng Jiuyuan (both on 3m), Zhang Minjie (on 10m) and Bai Yuming doing triple duty (in both mixed synchro dives as well as 10m individually), combined to earn 489.65 points and lead the field after each of six dives.

Mexico’s quartet surged on the last three dives (all on 10m) to finish second, 34.30 points behind China. The silver was Mexico’s fifth medal here, and it remains the second-most successful diving nation behind China at these world championships.

Germany had been in second place at the midpoint of the contest, but Mexico bumped the European nation to bronze after Gabriela Agundez Garcia performed the most difficult fourth-round dive of the field (an armstand back triple with 3.3DD on 10m). Her teammate Randal Willars Valdez kept Mexico in third place by throwing the hardest fifth-round dive (a forward 4½ with 4.1 DD, also on 10m). In the last dive, mixed synchro on 10m, the two sealed the silver for Mexico, 23.2 points ahead of bronze medalist Germany.

Afterwards, China’s champions expressed an array of feelings.

The oldest of the four, Si Yajie, 24, said “I have participated in many international competitions but still I get very nervous, like [it was my] first time.” 

China’s Zhang Minjie, 18, who actually WAS competing in her first team competition, said, “I really like the [it]. Very interesting. I felt safe with my team; they encouraged me.”

Meanwhile, China’s Bai Yuming,16, who had also won gold in the team event at the 2022 world championships, pointed out that there were only two divers then, not four.

As a result, he said, “I felt more pressure than last year. I felt support from my team, but [also] more responsibility. If I make any mistake, all other divers will suffer.”

Mexico’s silver medalist Aranza Montano Vazquez, 20, summed it up for her teammates: “We all wanted to put our country on the podium so we gave our best and it paid off.”  Nevertheless, she said, “competing as a team is nerve-racking because we are so used to being individuals.” Independently, Montana Vazquez had captured bronze in the women’s 1m event on Day 1.

On Tuesday, however, “We were competing for each other,” she said. “We know we all depend on each other. We’ve all been practicing together since we’ve been here and I think [it] helped us to compete as a team today.”

Bronze medalist Christina Wassen, 24, said the German team had no idea that Australia just 1.2 points behind them going into the last dive.  “We were not watching the screen throughout the competition,” she said. “What enabled our success in the final round was to just focus on ourselves, go through our dives, and hope that our effort will be enough.”

Lena Hentschel, 22, added that she and her fellow bronze medalists Wassen, Moritz Wesemann, 21, and Timo Barthel, 27, “are really happy with today’s result. We simply trusted ourselves and trusted the process. Today’s competition, as far as we are concerned, went as planned.”

Australia, the US, and Spain finished fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, in the 14-team field.

Looking Ahead to Day 5

If you only see one more diving final this week in Fukuoka, do NOT miss Wednesday’s lone medal event. It will be an exquisite battle of perfection and precision as Chinese teenagers try to top each other on the women’s 10m platform. Chen Yuxi, 17, will be vying for her third consecutive world title in this event, but she will have to defeat her teammate, the 2020 Olympic champion Quan Hongchan, 16, who took silver behind Chen last year by a mere three-tenths of a point in Budapest, Hungary.