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ROME, Italy, July 18. THE second day of diving featured an upset of the Chinese, and a dominant outing by China in the women's platform and men's three-meter synchronized diving events at the FINA World Championships held in Rome.
Mexico's Paola Espinosa upset the usual dominance of the Chinese with a gold-medal performance in the women's 10-meter platform event. She collected 428.25 points based on consistent greatness throughout her five-dive list. Three of her dives cleared 90 points, while three also were the top dive of the round. She even earned a 10 in both her second and third dives.
China's Chen Ruolin could not shake off two 80-point dives in the second and third rounds, even with an outstanding final dive tallying 96.90 points that included a 10 from Donald Craine of the U.S. Chen settled for silver with 417.60 points. China's Kang Li gave her country a 2-3 finish in the event with 410.35 points for bronze.
China countered in the men's three-meter synchronized event with a crushing performance. The duo of Qin Kai and Wang Feng easily won gold with a 467.94-point tally. Outside of the second round, the Chinese had the top dive of every round and scattered four 10s throughout the finale.
The U.S. tandem of Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen, which led the preliminary round this morning, scored silver with 445.59 points. The pairing opened finals well, scoring a 10 from one judge. A rough third and fourth round, however, pulled Dumais and Ipsen out of world title contention.
Canada's Alexandre Despatie and Reuben Ross completed the podium with 428.64 points, and likely would have had a shot at silver if not for a last-place dive in the fourth round.