Chinese divers dominated the opening day of the 12th FINA
Southern Cross Diving Grand Prix, winning two gold medals at the
Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center on Monday.
Jia Tong was too classy for her rivals in the women's 10-metre
platform, leading compatriot Yuan Peilin to a Chinese one-two after
Xu Xiang and He Chong finished first and second in the men's 3m
springboard.
Jia (412.15) led throughout to win the platform final but Yuan
won a battle with Australia's Olympic champion Chantelle Newbery
for the silver.
Yuan produced a brilliant last effort to snatch the silver,
scoring 377.85 to Newbery's 377.70.
In the men's three-meter final, last year's world championship
silver medallist Xu came from behind to beat He.
He looked impressive in the preliminaries and led after four of
the six dives before Xu posted 94.5 for his reverse
three-and-a-half somersault in the tuck position on the fifth
dive.
Xu then did enough on the last dive to grab victory with a total
score of 503.95 to He's 499.65. Japanese Olympic finalist Ken
Tarauchi (474.85) was third.
(Shenzhen Daily and CRI English February 14, 2006)