News
23/07/2009DIVING - Chong makes his mark in the 3m Springboard.
A triumph. China won the ninth medal of this Championships in Diving: the sixth made of gold. Chong He is the World Champion in Men’s 3m Springboard with the score of 505.20 points, making his third and fifth dive almost perfectly. 6.80 points behind him, Troy Dumais (USA) got the silver medal with a score of 498.40 while Alexandre Despatie (CAN) grabbed the bronze with 490.30. The other Chinese Xinhua Zhang came fourth. Michele Benedetti (ITA) got the last place in the Final with a score of 415.70.
In the Female’s 3m Synchro Springboard Preliminaries, Jingjing Guo and Minxia Wu (CHN) achieved the first position (342.90 pt). The Final will take place next Friday 3:45 p.m. The Italian duet made by Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dellapé gained the second position (316.20) while Russians Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdniakova placed third (305.49). Fourth place goes to Paola Espinosa and Laura Sanchez (MEX) with the score of 304.50.
Chong HE (CHN) - gold
"I am very glad for winning this gold medal. It has been a very long and difficult day. Apart from the competition's efforts, over the past few months I suffered from a knee injury. But I fought a lot and now I am on the podium. Today it is a beautiful day for me, really."
"Controlling my emotions played a key role in this final. Now I want to get back the technical level I had at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and my best physical conditions as well."
"I injured my knee in 2006. I didn't take too much care of it, so it took s long time to recover. Now I still have problems with it."
"I want to thank the Chinese team for giving me the opportunity to compete here. This medal is my gift to them."
Troy DUMAIS (USA) - silver
"After the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games I set very high targets, so this year has been very tough. My dream of winning a gold medal faded away. The athlete's nature is to win."
"They (The Chinese) always perform the best."
"All achievements I got till now is thanks to my coach, my parents and the people who surronded me. They supported me this year more than ever. I made my competition enjoyable."
Alexandre DESPATIE (CAN) - bronze
"Today it was an interesting day for me, not in a bad way. I could do better. I was great yesterday. Today I did my best dives, unfortunately it was not enough."
"Anyway I am in the top three in the world. Next year I hope to dive better and more consistently."