China wins 10th gold in diving to lead Gwangju FINA worlds

Source: Xinhua| 2019-07-17 22:18:05|Editor: mingmei
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GWANGJU, South Korea, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Chinese teenager Chen Yuxi brought the 10th gold medal for the diving "dream team" of China with a perfect performance at the 18th FINA World Championships in the South Korean city of Gwangju on Wednesday.

13-year-old Chen made a fantastic debut in the world championships, sealing first with 439.00 points in the women's 10m platform final. It was the 10th gold for China as the country remained atop the medal table.

Chen's score was 61.20 ahead of her teammate Lu Wei, 13, who claimed the silver with 377.80 in her championships debut. Delaney Schnell of the United States took bronze in 364.20.

In the men's 3m springboard semifinals, Chinese divers Xie Siyi and Cao Yuan recorded a 1-2 finish, taking aim at additional gold for both in the finals scheduled for Thursday. Xie and Cao won golds in the men's 3m synchro event.

The Russian team trailed China in the medal table as Russian artistic swimmer Svetlana Romashina added one gold in the solo free event.

Romashina finished first in 97.133 points, claiming her second gold of these championships. She won her first gold in the women's duet technical routine, teaming up with double gold medalist Svetlana Kolesnichenko.

With the additional gold, Russia has claimed all of its five golds at the tournament in artistic swimming.

Ona Carbonell of Spain secured silver with 94.5667 in the solo free event, followed by Japan's Yukiko Inui who won bronze with 93.2000.

Chinese artistic swimmers were eyeing a comeback in the team free final, finishing second in the preliminary round with 95.7667 points. It was two points behind reigning champions Russia.

"I have confidence that we can do far better two days later in the final," said vice captain Guo Li of China.

Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha won a gold medal in the women's 5km open water swimming, capturing her first world championship gold in the 5km race.

Cunha has been dominant in the longest 25km event, taking three golds in the 25km races in 2011 from Shanghai, in 2015 from Kazan and in 2017 from Budapest.

In the shortest 5km event, Cunha only claimed bronze medals, including the one from Budapest two years ago.

Aurelie Muller of France took the silver by exactly one second behind the gold medalist. Hannah More of the United States and Leonie Beck of Germany were tied for bronze with two seconds off Cunha's winning time.

In the second preliminary matches of men's water polo, reigning champion Croatia trounced the United States 17-7, and Australia defeated Kazakhstan 17-8 in Group B.

Croatia can directly go to the quarterfinals when beating Kazakhstan, while Australia and the United States will play for second on Friday.

In Group A, Greece and Montenegro provided a 10-10 draw, and Serbia swept the host team South Korea 22-2.

Hungary had a narrow victory over Spain 13-11, and South Africa and New Zealand fought to a 8-8 draw in Group C, while Italy beat Japan 9-7, and Germany upset Brazil 15-8 in Group D.

The third round of group matches of men's water polo will be held on Friday.

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