Fina World Championship 2013: Golden 10m triumph for Qiu

LONCAT INDAH, Bo Qiu retained his 10m crown in spectacular style, defeating Olympic gold medallist David Boudia of the USA to bring China their ninth diving title out of 10 on offer at the FINA World Championships. Qiu uncorked two dives worth more than 100 points as well as a barrage of perfect 10 marks from the judges in a master class from the 10m tower. Qiu, the first man to retain the world platform crown since Russia's Dmitry Sautin in 1998, began inauspiciously in the first round after a shaky semi-final but only two of his six final dives turned out to be worth less than 99 points. 

Qiu, Olympic silver medallist behind Boudia at the London Games, amassed a colossal 581.00 points to win by a vast 63.60 points from Boudia (517.40). The American dived consistently but had to settle for the silver behind Qiu for the second successive World Championships. Germany's Sascha Klein, who shared gold with Patrick Hausding in the 10m synchro, the only title to escape China at the Montjuic Municipal Pool, finished third with 508.55 points, repeating the world bronze he achieved in 2011. Tom Daley of Great Britain, the 2009 world champion ahead of Qiu, held third spot for two rounds in the middle of the competition but faded to sixth (470.60). Olympic bronze medallist Daley has been plagued by injury and said he had been happy just to make the final. It was China's fifth men's 10m win in 15 editions of the championships.

Fina World Championship 2013: He claims second Barcelona gold

LONCAT INDAH, Zi He claimed her second gold medal of the FINA World Championships when she added the 3m springboard title to the 1m crown she won five days earlier. He emerged triumphantly from the shadows of her illustrious predecessors Jingjing Guo and Minxia Wu and swooped to China's eighth Barcelona diving title out of nine so far contested, with one final still to come. It was China's seventh successive win in the event, following Guo's unique set of five and the 2011 victory of Wu, who did not defend her individual title in Barcelona but won a 3m synchro gold medal for the sixth time.

He, world and Olympic 3m silver medallist behind Wu in 2011 and 2012, amassed 383.40 points from her five final dives for a clearcut victory ahead of Chinese team-mate Han Wang (356.25) and Canada's Pamela Ware (350.25). Wang, who already had a 1m silver and two 1m bronzes in her world championship medal collection, claimed her first medal on the 3m board in China's fifth one-two in the event.

15th FINA World Championships 2013: Clash of titans in Men’s 10m platform

LONCAT INDAH, 10m platform is diving's hottest event at the 15th FINA World Championships. Today the stands at Montjuïc Swimming Pool were full despite the high temperatures. The podium this time was the same as in Shanghai 2011: Qiu Bo (CHN) earned gold, David Boudia (USA) won the silver medal, and the bronze was awarded to Sascha Klein (GER), ratifying their current titles

The figures of the final show that Qiu Bo kept the lead throughout the competition obtaining the highest scores while Boudia and Klein were fighting to stay in 2nd and 3rd place each round. Qiu Bo marked a distance to Boudia with 63.60 points and 72.45 to Klein. 'Considering that I was not in my best shape before the Olympics, and also had many injuries after, I think that everyone could see that I have worked very hard. Today I got my reward', said the Chinese diver.

Bo's final score was 581.00, obtaining more than 90 points in five rounds out of six. Fifth round was the best one (110.70) after performing backward dive with four-and-a-half somersaults. Boudia was in the first position in the two first rounds but ended up winning the silver medal (517.40). 'It's been a hard year for me. After the gold in London 2012 and getting married, being back to competing has been tough. To me World Championships check how much I've worked, and which dives I need to improve".

The bronze made Klein keep on fighting until round 5, where he ranked third (508.55). 'It's been a difficult year to me too. I've been injured and it's been only a few months ago that I started training. I'm very happy with my workout and very proud with today's bronze'.

Mexico's Germán Sánchez and Iván García also fought for climbing up on the podium and getting a new bronze medal, but the level was too high and they could not make it. Sánchez, ranked fourth, finished only 2.2 points behind the bronze medal.

The British diver Thomas Daley, who made diving popular on an international level and is a specialist in the 10m platform, arrived injured to the 15th FINA World Championships. This meant that he only finished in sixth place with 470.60 points. "It has been one of the most painful experiences of my life. Despite the injury I wanted to compete but it has been frustrating not to be able to fight for the podium".

With this triumph Qiu Bo has become the second man to win a medal in three World Championships in the 10m platform, he achieved the silver in Rome 2009 and the gold in the following two championships. The first to achieve this feat was Greg Louganis (USA).

Even though David Boudia had reserved all his energies for this event, Sasha Klein collected his second gold in Barcelona 2013, after already having won the 10 m synchronised platform.

China and all of its divers have established themselves as the one to beat for the rest of the countries. They have only lost one of the ten events disputed and have achieved nine gold medals, three silver and two bronze. Wenjin Zhao, coach of the team, confessed that Barcelona 2013 "has been a really special place to compete but now it´s time to return home and continue competing on a national level".

Asked about the possibility of seeing them compete from 27m platform like in the high diving, the three medallists laugh and shake their head. They confirm "10 metres is already high enough" and although Boudia clarified that "in reality the jumps are the same as ours with a bit of variation of movement" he isn't going to dare try it.