German diver Sascha Klein secured a happy ending to his Cinderella story in the men's platform final Sunday at the FINA World Cup diving tournament, upsetting the usually dominant Chinese divers to take the title.
German Sascha Klein competes in the men's 10m platform final during the 16th FINA Diving World Cup tournament held at the National Aquatics Center yesterday in Beijing. He upset Chinese favorites Zhou Luxin and Lin Yue to win the title. [China Daily] |
Klein relegated China's multiple World Cup event winner Zhou Lixin to second place in a back-and-forth battle with a stunning last dive that earned him a remarkable 108.3 points, the record for the night.
Zhou, the 2007 World Championships silver medalist, could not match the German's achievement despite trailing by just 0.15 points going into the last dive. American David Boudia came in third, pushing another Chinese diver Lin Yue, also a multiple World Cup event winner, into fourth.
It was the first major victory for the unknown German. It was quite a surprise for the diver who claimed he never looked at the scoreboard.
"It is so unexpected and I cannot believe it," Klein said. "It's hard to describe my feeling right now. It just feels really good."
It was indeed a welcome victory for the German, who has toiled in obscurity for the better part of his 15-year diving career. But beating the overwhelming Chinese favorites felt like redemption after all the years of struggle.
"Everyone can be good and you just need to believe it," Klein said.
The rest of the world has been seeking a way to challenge China's domination in diving for the past decade. Before yesterday's competitions, the Chinese had taken every title on offer.
But Klein seemed to find the key to beating Chinese divers - a brave heart, extremely difficult dives and error-free execution.
Klein, who qualified for the final as the third-place finisher, unveiled a routine with a total degree of difficulty of 21, the highest among final competitors and 0.9 higher than Zhou.
He surprised a skeptical crowd by executing near flawless dives from start to finish, scoring over 90 points on each of the six dives except the third. His routine included a dive rarely seen, his second one, in which he somersaulted forward four and half times.
"I have been trained with such difficulty for a long time," he said. "I used the second dive in the national competitions but never internationally.
"Tonight I just want to show the people that I can do that."
The strategy worked well, especially after Zhou managed to cut the gap to 0.15 points before the last dive.
But their final dives made the difference. Klein held his nerves to make an over-100-point dive. It all but decided the outcome because Zhou needed to score almost 110 points on a dive with a much lower difficulty level. Zhou's final dive only earned him 85 points.
"I just tried to not be nervous," Klein said. "I always try to give my best and I made it."
The Chinese divers bowed to the pressure that has been building since they lost the title at last year's World Championships. A similar story unfolded in the 2007 Melbourne tournament when a determined Russian diver, Gleb Galperin, defeated Zhou, again with a strong and difficult routine.
Chinese divers still managed to win the last event of the tournament yesterday when Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing convincingly won the women's synchronized springboard.
China won a total of seven gold medals in the seven-day tournament, which was also as a test event for August's Beijing Olympics.
