China takes four synchro golds in FINA Diving World Series

BEIJING - China dominated the first day of the FINA/CNSG Diving World Series 2019 as the host divers took four synchro titles on offer with Olympic champion Cao Yuan becoming the double winner here on Thursday.

Cao/Chen Aisen topped the men's 10m synchro platform as they scored 494.55, beating Aleksandr Bondar/Viktor Minibaev of Russia (425.67) and Domonic Bedggood/Declan Stacey of Australia (411.00). Thomas Daley/Matthew Lee of Britain finished fourth 400.86.

Cao, two-time Olympic champion in 10m platform synchro 2012 and 3m springboard 2016, continued his streak in the dual-track as he finished with two synchro titles from the platform and springboard and a silver medal from the 3m individual springboard.

"I made some minor mistakes in the forward and backward dives, but did a good job in the next four routines. It is a special pressure competing the synchro because I don't want to drag my partners down. I tried to catch up with the pace of each partner, while I just need to concentrate on my own in the individual," Cao said after the 10m platform final in the morning.

Cao stood atop the podium of the 3m springboard synchro later in the evening with Xie Siyi, winning 469.08, well ahead of the runners-up Jahir Ocampo Marroquin/Rommel Pacheco Marrufo of Mexico (413.61) and Philippe Gagne/Francois Imbeau-Dulac of Canada (399.48).

Daniel Goodfellow/Jack Laugher of Britain placed second after five dives but made a big mistake in their last dive 109C for zero point.

"I had a quick rest at noon and managed to make myself excited for the evening final. I was happy that we performed our best," Cao said.

For Thomas Delay, it was always great to come back to the Water Cube, but he was not totally satisfied with his 10m platform synchro.

"It was not great race today, but we were better than we did in last leg in Japan. We did 387.93 in last race and today we were 400.86.

"Lee Matthew and I are rather new pair since we have trained together for only four months. Every competition is a learning opportunity. I believe we will get better after we compete in the next legs in Montreal, Kazan and London. Our goal is the World Championships," Daley said.

Zhang Jiaqi, the World Cup winner last year, won her trademark women's 10m synchro platform by scoring 354.06 points. Kim A Rim/Kim Mi Rae of DPR Korea came to second with 325.80 and Meaghan Benfeito/Caeli Mckay of Canada were third with 313.44.

"I still felt very nervous but I tried to calm down since I am rather more experienced than my new partner Lu. It is our second time competing together, we should encourage each other," said Zhang, who won both individual and synchro in the first leg of the World Series in Sagamihara, Japan.

Shi Tingmao/Wang Han ruled the women's 3m springboard with 339.30 and Maddison Keeney/Anabelle Smith of Australia took the silvers at 300.93, Grace Reid/Katherine Torrance of Britain had the bronzes.

The three-day second-leg World Series attracts 78 elite divers from 14 countries and regions.