Olympics: China Near Perfect on 10-Meter Men’s Synchro; Tom Daley Adds Silver to Set

Lian Junjie and Yang Hao of China; Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

Olympics: China Near Perfect on 10-Meter Men’s Synchro; Tom Daley Adds Silver to Set

China’s duo of Lian Junjie and Yang Hao were near perfect in capturing gold in the 10-meter men’s synchro on Monday, with Tom Daley helping Great Britain to silver.

Lian and Yang scored 490.35 points, with the top score in each of the six rounds. While Daley and Noah Williams couldn’t quite keep up, they were second in each round to score 463.44, 40 points clear of the nearest challenger. Bronze went to Canada’s Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Muray.

Daley, at his fifth Olympics, now has a silver to go with gold at the Tokyo Olympics in Tokyo, where he and Matty Lee upset the Chinese. The 30-year-old has also won three bronze medals. It’s the fourth Olympics at which he’s medaled.

“If somebody had told me two years ago or 18 months ago that I wouldn’t even be anywhere near winning another Olympic medal, I probably would have laughed,” Daley said. “To be able to be here and to be diving in front of my family and having a really solid performance, I’m really happy.”

It’s the first Olympic medal each for Lian and Yang. Yang, 26, has six career World Championships gold medals. He and Lian, 23, have won each of the last three World Championships in 10-meter synchro.

“We are very excited and very relieved,” Lian said. “There was a lot of pressure on us. The Great Britain team is very strong and the points were so close.”

Canada is back on the podium after no medals in Tokyo. The Canadians tied with Daley and Williams for second in each of the first two rounds. The Brits pulled ahead by five points in the third and stayed that way. Canada bobbled slightly on its last dive, with the six-best dive out of eight competitors. But it still scored 422.13 to be three points ahead of Mexico. Mexico, with the tandem of Kevin Berlin Reyes and Randal Willars Valdez, needed to make up nine points on the final round.

“I don’t know what to say,” Wiens said. “A dream has come true. My last 17 years of being diving, and since we paired up three years ago, it’s been our dream to be here. To have won it, that’s awesome.”

Ukraine finished fifth, with Australia sixth.

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