GWANGJU, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Against pains on her waist, Shi Tingmao proved her reputation as the Queen on the women's 3m springboard as the two-time Olympic champion brought a one-two finish with teammate Wang Han at the 18th FINA World Swimming Championships here on Friday.
It was Shi's third consecutive world title of the event and extended China's unbeaten run to tenth time since 2001. Guo JIngjing won 5 times in a row and the last non-Chinese champion was Yuliya Pakhalina from Russia in 1998 Perths worlds.
China so far won all 11 diving gold medals on offer in Gwangju.
Shi was always smooth on the board and left no chance to the other divers, winning 391.00 points for the champion.
"It was my fifth time to compete at the worlds, from a rookie to a veteran. It was harder and harder each time to win the champion as the competition was very close today. I have bad waist injury but I had to overcame the pain to focus on my own dives. The victory boosted my confidence on the way to Tokyo Olympic Games," said the 27-year-old.
Wang Han followed all the way as the second and sealed a silver medal 372.85. It was her third silver medal of the event following her runner-up finishes in 2013 and 2017 worlds.
Maddison Keeney of Australia placed third at 367.05 while Jennifer Abel of Canada, bronze medalist in Budapest two years ago, finished fourth in 333.35.
"I did pretty consistent five dives, no big errors but not perfect. I was happy that Shi and I had a one-two finish since Keeney is very competitive," said Wang, who won the synchro champion with Shi in Gwangju.
