China wins third of four individual golds

30 September 2000

TIAN Liang (CHN) and HU Jia (CHN) dominated the Men's 10m Platform final Saturday night, scoring 13 perfect 10's between them to win the final gold and silver awarded in the diving competition.

The defending Olympic champion and reigning world champion, Dmitri SAOUTINE of Russia, won his second individual bronze of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

SAOUTINE entered the final in fifth position. Strong first and second dives placed him in medal contention, however, his third dive ranked eleventh for the round, jeopardising his medal hopes. He rebounded strongly in the last two rounds, earning a 10 and a total of 94.86 for his fifth dive to snare the bronze ahead of 15-year-old Alexandre DESPATIE of Canada.

"These previous performances together took up a lot of my energy. I must be just exhausted. Maybe I should have used a different strategy. You can endure mental pressure, but you can't control physical," said SAOUTINE at a post-event press conference.

"I've been to three Olympics. Every Olympics is different to others but every time I see my Chinese colleagues I see their consistency and I find it more and more difficult to compete with them."

New Olympic champion TIAN earned three 10's for his first dive, a back 1 1/2 somersault with 3 1/2 twists, for a score of 93.12. His highest scoring dive came in the fourth round, a back 3 1/2 somersault with a 3.6 degree of difficulty, scoring him 101.52 and placing him 19.20 points ahead of teammate HU.

"We started to prepare from the first day we learnt to dive. That is our dream," TIAN told the press gallery after the event.

HU entered the final in first place. On his third dive, a back 3 1/2 somersault, HU earned a 10 from every judge bar one for a total of 99.00. Leading the field at the end of round three, a costly mistake on his fourth dive meant HU had the lowest scoring dive for the round, severely hampering his chances for gold. A strong fifth dive secured him the silver medal.

Olympic News Service