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ROME, Italy, July 21. THE FINA World Championships have shown that while China is definitely still the country to beat in the sport of diving, it may have some weaknesses.
Great Britain's Thomas Daley, 15, shocked the world by capturing the men's 10-meter platform title with an incredible point tally of 539.85 points. China's Qiu Bo opened the door with an average 79.80-point dive in the final round. Daley, diving two slots before Qiu, had already set the stage for the upset with an amazing 100.30-point dive that included four 10s from the judges. That allowed Daley to move from third-place overall heading into the final dive to the top of the podium.
Qiu, who has the most consistently amazing list until the final dive, had already seen five 10s go up on the board in his honor, including three during the fourth round with a 104.40-point dive that proved to be the best of the day. He finished with a bittersweet silver with 532.20 points.
China's Zhou Luxin, who entered the final round of dives in fourth, moved into the medal with a stellar 100.70-point dive to secure bronze with 530.55 points.
Australia's Matthew Mitcham looked like a lock for silver heading into the final round, but could only muster an 83.60 to finish fourth with 529.50 points. Russia's Aleksey Kravchenko (493.90) and the United States' David Boudia (491.80) finished fifth and sixth.
No one could touch China's Guo Jingjing on the women's three-meter springboard. She completed the five dive list with 388.20 for the gold medal. Only one dive, a 67.50 in the fourth round, was not the top dive among all competitors in the round.
Guo finished more than 40 points ahead of Canada's Emilie Heymans, who took silver with 346.45 points. Sitting in ninth after the second round, Heymans went to work with three strong dives averaging 70 points to snatch the second spot on the podium.
Italy's Tania Cagnotto handled China's He Zi in a final-round battle for bronze. Cagnotto, who stood third heading into the final round, had enough of a lead to hold off a charge from He. Cagnotto claimed bronze with 341.25 points, while He settled for fourth with 336.65 points.
Ariel Rittenhouse of the U.S. (335.10) and Sharleen Stratton of Australia (327.75) placed fifth and sixth overall.