Diving team off to strong start, claiming two golds on first day

Diving, Chengdu, University Games Photo: VCG

The Chinese delegation claimed two golds out of two on offer on the first day of the diving event at the Chengdu Universiade on Monday.

Zhang Jiaqi and Zhang Minjie were crowned champions in the women's synchronized 10m platform in convincing fashion. They scored a total of 349.08 points, leading the silver medalists from South Korea by 106.68 points.

Zhang Minjie told the Global Times after the final that she wanted to improve her performance and do even better in future competitions. 

Earlier, Chinese pair Huang Bowen and Liang Chaohui won the men's synchronized 3m springboard despite a flaw in the third round.

Huang and Liang came out as the leaders with a score of 101.40 points after the first two dives. But the Germans overtook to lead with 247.68 points after the fourth round, thanks to the mistake by the Chinese.

Liang Chaohui told the Global Times after the final that they managed to adjust in time to come back to the game. 

"I'm not satisfied with my performance in the final. But after the mistake, we adjusted in the next dive and sealed victory finally," said Liang, adding that he cherished the opportunity to communicate with athletes from other delegations.

"In terms of training styles, we are different from other teams, which allows us to learn a lot from each other. We rarely communicated with athletes from other delegations because we have different training schedules," Liang said.

"It was our first time pairing up for the men's competition. We had paired with each other for a month. We had different diving styles, but we improved our coordination during the month-long practice," Huang told the Global times after the victory. 

China has a squad of 18 divers for the Chengdu Games, which has a total of 15 gold medals up for grabs in the diving competitions.