A relentless display of diving brilliance from the Chinese men in the ten metre platform event ensured China’s dominance in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival on Day 4.

All three medals in the men’s 10m platform went China’s way coupled with a sweep of the gold in today’s two other events at the Sydney aquatic centre.

Perfect tens were the order of the day for the Chinese divers in the men’s platform, with Qin Tian offering a banquet of sensational dives. Tian’s 10m gold adds to his 3m springboard and 3m synchronised gold medals that he clinched on the first day of the Festival’s diving event.

The seventeen-year-old from China’s Hubei province finished 40 points clear with a score of 652.30 in the race for the gold against his training partners, Ling Hong and Li Teng, who finished with the silver and bronze respectively.

The competition between the three Chinese divers was tight through the event, with Ling Hong looking a certainty to take the gold after seven of the nine dives completed.

It was Tian’s scores of 91.8 and 104.4 with two near perfect dives in the eighth and ninth rounds that clinched victory for him.

Tian said through his translator that he was very happy with the way he dived and hoped he could use the experience of diving in an international competition as he builds towards a spot in the national squad for next year’s Olympic Games.

The brilliant Chinese divers overshadowed the brave performance of 12-year-old British diver Thomas Daley, who finished fourth place in the event.

Earlier in the women’s 3m springboard, Australia’s Melissa Wu was looking to bounce back after her disappointing performance in the 10m platform event but again it was the Chinese that shot up the leader board early.

Wu looked decidedly more comfortable in the event, suggesting that she may have left her nerves back in the locker room, but again she started slowly and after six rounds it looked as though nothing could prevent the Chinese diver, Wang Wei, from claiming gold.

The ninth round saw Malaysia’s Elizabeth Jimie score highly to secure an unassailable third place lead, moving away from Wu who was finishing strongly. It was the Chinese diver, Chen Wen, who finished with a flurry of brilliant dives and secured the gold.

Late in the day the two Chinese girls combined to win another gold in the 3m women’s synchronised event in which Wen and Wei finished 30 points ahead of the Australian pairing of Rhiannan Iffland and Olivia Wright.

The Australian girls scored an impressive 265.17 points only 20 minutes after it was decided that they would be competing in the event together. Australian diving team officials confirmed that it was indeed an extraordinary performance by Iffland and Wright as the technical skills required to compete in synchronisation take months of training.

 Instead, the performance was sighted as being a good dose of “Aussie willing” that landed the girls the silver medal. The diving competition concludes on Sunday January 21st with the Chinese looking for a clean sweep in the men’s and women’s platform synchronised events which begin at 9am.

Joe Bromham
AYOF