体坛英语新闻：China dominates diving World Cup with clean sweep, with threats looming around

LONDON, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- China proved its dominance in the diving pool once again with another clean sweep, as all the eight gold medals dropped into the bag of the Chinese "Dream Team" at the 18th Diving World Cup which ended Saturday in London.

Like packing in its own medal warehouse, the team also pocketed four, or half of the silver medals on offer at this World Cup.

Qiu Bo, China's up-and-coming diving star, clinched the gold medal in men's 10m platform on Saturday evening. Another Chinese diver Lin Yue was ranked the sixth.

The 19-year-old Qiu, champion at the 14th FINA World Championships last year, entered the final in the leading position, but didn't start well in the first round of dive.

Yet he surged to the top soon and impressed spectators with his stable and flawless performances.

Dubbed "Mr. Calm" for his stability, Qiu said his biggest enemy was himself. In 2009, he finished second in the Rome World Championships.

"I went through a really difficult time after losing the gold in Rome," he said.

"Then I realized that confidence is essential in the competition and one must conquer his fear so as to win," he said.

In the second competition Saturday evening, Chinese veteran Wu Minxian and He Zi led all the way with their commanding performances to pluck the gold without any suspension.

CLEAN SWEEP

Twice Olympic champion Wu Minxia was expected to be the next "Diving Queen" in China after pinup Guo Jingjing's retirement. In the women's 3m springboard event, she beat her teammate and partner He to mount the top of the podium.

Her glory in the Olympic Acquatic Center in London was only parallelled by another Chinese female diver and Olympic champion Chen Ruolin. The 20-year-old Chen snatched the gold in women's 10m platform on the second day of the World Cup after intense competition, edging her teammate Hu Yadan to a close second.

The limber Chen, who was obviously in good form, later paired up with Wang Hao to win her second gold in women's synchronised 10m platform.

In men's events, Chinese divers Qin Kai and Luo Yutong were crowned at the synchronised 3m springboard event, while Olympic champion He Chong won the 3m springboard, leaving the silver to his compatriot Qin Kai. The third was grabbed by Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan, dubbed the "Pair of Spring" as the last characters in their names together means spring, in men's synchronized 10m platform.

The spree also enabled the Chinese to be selected as the best overall team of the World Cup.

[ AN EXAMINATION

To some extent, the 18th Diving World Cup was viewed as an examination for Chinese divers before the London Olympics, especially the male divers.

After the Shanghai world championships, Chinese divers came to realize that with the improvement of their competitors, they could only win by increasing the difficulty of their dives.

Zhou Jihong, manager of the Chinese diving team, required every male spring divers to perform the most difficult dive so as to defend their titles. The dive, coded as 109C, featured fast-spinning four and a half somersaults with tuck.

In the first day's competition of men's synchronised 3m springboard, although Russian divers Dvgeny Kuznetsov and Illya Zakharov lost the gold, they impressed hundreds of people with the high degrees of difficulty in their performances, in particular the iconic 109C.

The duo became known to many Chinese by stunning them at the Shanghai diving world championships last year with their difficult yet terrific last dive.

In comparison, Chinese Qin Kai and Luo Yutong lapsed a bit in the same movement with bigger splash.

But Qin managed to show his ability in depth two days later in men's 3m springboard. After one that dragged him to the seventh, he produced an impeccable dive of 109C, scoring a massive 108.30 points.

The men's 10m platform diving event was China's weakest category as the diving powerhouse lost the title twice at the Beijing Olympic Games and Rome worlds.

But Qiu Bo proved his resolution to crown in the 2011 FINA Diving World Series - Beijing, where he received no less than 25 perfect 10s to score a historic 609.20 in the 10m event. Then in the 2011 World Championships held in Shanghai, Qiu won two gold medals in the platforms.

This time, he earned 100-plus in two of the most difficult dives. In one of these extraordinary dives, six of the seven judges gave him 10 points, the full score, while in the other, the hardest 109C, he got an appalling 105.45 points.

LOOMING THREATS

Despite the overwhelming victory, Chinese divers couldn't feel relieved as their foreign counterparts are formidable enough to challenge their dominance.

Russian pair Dvgeny Kuznetsov and Illya Zakharov was only less than 6 points behind Qin and Luo in Monday's men's 3m synchronized event, after a disasterous second dive.

This is reminiscent to the contest last year in Shanghai, when their position was also secured by the most difficult last dive. So what if they do well next time in the easy movements as well?

After the competition, Zakharov said: "our aim is the gold, but as my partner has a trauma, we are not in good form. At the Olympic Games we will show our real compacity."

In comparison, Qin and Luo who only performed the 109C for the first time in world arena surely need more preparation.

Some other powerful contestants included Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham of Australia and British prodigy Thomas Daley.

The only non-Chinese diver to win gold in Beijing 2008 when he took the 10m title, Mitcham, 23, finished fourth with 498.90 points in the preliminery of men's 10m platform but failed to appear in the final.

"I am so fresh in my comeback," he said. Mitcham's last major competition was in April last year.

"But coming back here in July, that's the plan," he added.

Daley of Britain, world champion in 2009 Rome, was regarded as the host's medal hope for this summer's London Games. Due to injury, he only competed in men's synchronized 10m platform event with Saturday's bronze-medalist Peter Waterfield.

The pair, in their first competition since the 2011 World Championships, blew away the medal in the last dive.

But Chinese diver Qiu Bo once said: "Daley is very strong, especially in front of his home crowds next year."

Looking into the Olympics, Daley said, "I'm going to do the best I can."