Clash of the titans

For the 20-year-old Chen, her own regret of having not claimed an individual Olympic gold yet, and only winning at the National Games this year, largely came down to the dominance of her national teammate, the seemingly invincible Quan Hongchan, who had been sidelined for almost half a year by multiple injuries, before making an impressive return in Guangzhou.

The 18-year-old diving prodigy drew loud cheers from a capacity crowd at the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center's swimming and diving hall on Nov 2, when she helped the Guangdong squad win the women's team discipline at the Games in her first official competition since May.

The teen master of the "splash-disappearing technique", referring to her deft body control that keeps the splash to a minimum when she enters the water, delivered once again, suggesting that she's not done yet, even having won back-to-back individual 10m platform Olympic titles by beating Chen both times at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.

"I still believe I am competing well enough that I could complete a full set of dives with quality," Quan said after finishing fifth with Wang Weiying in the synchro discipline on Nov 5.

"I am not at my best now, but I am happy, and really enjoying the competition."

Chen, Quan's gold-winning synchro partner in Paris, welcomed the return of her friend and biggest individual rival, saying she expects Quan to return to her peak form soon, as their healthy competition always helps bring out the best in each other.

Women's reigning Olympic 3m springboard champion Chen Yiwen, 26, had to settle with a bronze in the individual final on Tuesday, beaten by her fellow Guangdong teammate and eventual gold winner Lin Shan and runner-up Chen Jia, representing Sichuan province.

"All the other divers have done pretty well, better than I did, in this final, showing how high the level of competition has been," said Chen Yiwen.