Sports News | Chinese Divers Win Gold, Silver
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Cao Yuan became the first diver to win gold medals in three different Olympic events with a thrilling duel off the 10-meter platform at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Tokyo, Aug 7 (AP) Cao Yuan became the first diver to win gold medals in three different Olympic events with a thrilling duel off the 10-meter platform at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
Cao completed another dominating performance by the mighty Chinese team, which was nearly perfect at these games. Yang Jian took the silver, just 1.95 points behind his teammate in a scintillating capper.
Yang nailed his final dive, receiving a string of 9.0s and 9.5s for a forward 4 1/2 somersaults with a 4.1-degree of difficulty -- the hardest dive that anyone attempted.
Yang came up out of the water, pumping his fists.
But Cao was the final diver to go off the tower. While his dive wasn't as difficult, his marks were even better -- two perfect 10s, every other score a 9.5. That was enough to give him the gold with 582.35 points, with Yang taking the silver with 580.40.
Britain's Tom Daley was the only diver who gave the Chinese a real challenge before finishing with 548.25 for the bronze. He now had four Olympics medals in his career -- one gold and three bronze.
China's only slip-up in Tokyo came in the 10-meter synchronized, where Cao and Chen Aisen settled for silver behind Daley and Matty Lee by a mere 1.23 points. That miniscule margin was the only thing stopping a perfect run at the Tokyo pool by the world's greatest diving nation..
The Chinese were 1-2 in all four individual events, to go along with three golds and a silver in synchronized.
The 26-year-old Cao added to the golds he won on the 3-meter springboard at the 2016 Rio Games and in 10-meter synchro at the 2012 London Olympics. He also became only the second man to win medals in all four Olympic diving events after Russia's Dmitry Sautin.
Americans Jordan Windle and Brandon Loschiavo finished ninth and 11th, respectively. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)