China’s domination of the Olympic diving events continued yesterday as teenagers Lin Yue and Huo Liang took the men’s synchronized 10m platform gold medal to make it two wins from two so far for the hosts.
After their team-mates Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia eased to victory in the women’s three-meter synchronized springboard event on Sunday, China won their second consecutive diving gold by another sizeable margin.
Lin, 17, and Huo, 18, won with nearly 18 points to spare yesterday from Germany who took silver after Russia slipped down to third place.
“I would like to thank my leader, my coach, as well as all who have helped me in the team, without their help, I would not be sat here,” Lin said.
The pair are already celebrities in China and Lin admitted he and Huo had received special training on how to deal with a large and noisy crowd who cheered their every dive at the Water Cube.
“We already knew there would be many people cheering for us and the training for that certainly helped,” he said.
But having tasted success after winning the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Lin said the actual taste of an Olympic medal — having taken a bite while posing for the cameras after the medal ceremony — left something to be desired.
“When we bit the medal, there wasn’t much taste,” he said.
Having come out and scored a perfect 10 from one of the judges in the first round, the Chinese had the home crowd on their feet with their second dive.
Their inward pike also impressed the nine-strong judging panel who awarded them seven 10s and two 9.5s for the second round.
Lin and Huo went onto lead by ten points after three of the six dives.
And while Gleb Galperin and Dmitriy Dobroskok were fewer than eight points behind with two dives left, the Russians finished poorly to allow Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein to take the silver.
The British duo of 14-year-old Tom Daley and Blake Aldridge finished last of the eight pairs, dropping down the leaderboard after a bright start.
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