Chinese divers completed a clean sweep of 10 gold medals on offer at the 17th Asian Games when World Champions He Zi and Qiu Bo won the women’s three metre springboard and men’s 10m platform events on the last day of the diving competition in Incheon on Friday.
China topped the diving medals tally with 10 golds and six silvers while Malaysia finished second with two silvers, three bronzes. Hosts South Korea has one silver and four bronzes, reports Xinhua .
Defending champion Zi proved a class above her opponents in the three metre springboard, scoring 374.45 points from five dives. China’s Wang Han, runner-up in the one metre springboard, had to settle for silver again with 359.3 points and Cheong Jun Hong of Malaysia came third with 327.1.
“I really wanted to achieve 385-390 or higher scores before the competition. But my performance was not that good as I expected. I am very serious about the Asian Games and my rival is myself,” Zi said.
London Olympics silver medallist Qiu Bo showed his balance of difficulty and stability in the men’s 10m platform.
He scored 576.4 points together with six full marks while teammate Yang stumbled in his third dive but came back strongly in the last dive (forward 4 1/2 somersaults) for a day-high 106.6 points to take the silver in 526.95. Woo Haram of South Korea was third.
“It was my best performance so far this year. I made a careless mistake in the World Cup last July that costed me the title. I was afraid of making the same mistake again here. Fortunately, I showed my usual form to take this title. It is a great boost for me,” said Bo, who finished second behind Yang in the World Cup.
