Meanwhile, it was not only Wu Chunting who took advantage of the situation. Maria Polyakova (RUS) was only sixth in the qualifying round but managed to stand on the podium. Her performance in the final was very consistent and after the second attempt she placed herself among the leaders. As a result, Polyakova overtook Kenney for 0.25 after her perfect last dive.

Sydney Olympic champion Yulia Pakhalina, who came to her native city from USA (she is now a coach at the Houston University), was at the VIP-tribune. On the results, she told:

“The girls are very young. But despite their age, they try
to perform very difficult dives. At the same time, they don’t have
enough experience; that’s why they can be very good in training and make
mistakes, have shaky legs during the competition. That’s what happened
to the Australian girl. Chinese divers also were not in their better
shape but Chinese tradition continues to prevail”.

In Girls B (14-15 years old) 5-7.5-10 m platform final, Song Anxin (CHN) grabbed her first international gold medal scoring 394.10. Bronze went to her teammate Li Jinming (351.05). Lois Mae Toulson from Great Britain came second with a total score of 352.90.

On her performance Song Anxin said: “I have already won competitions in
China. But this is my first international victory. So I’m very happy. I
like it here in Russia. The tournament is well organised. Nothing
disturbs me. I can show everything that I prepared during training. And
we worked really hard, 7-8 hours per day”.

Among Boys, in synchro 3m springboard, the Mexican pair Diego Lopes Rodrigo and Ornelas Adan Zuniga won gold amssing 329.61 points. Russia’s Nikita Nikolaev and Ilya Molchanov came from seventh place in qualification to the second position in the final (307.80). Bronze went to Great Britain’s Sam Thornton and James Philip Hilty (305.88).
 


The Boys 3m synchro springboard medallists - Photo credit: Vladimir Pavlovskiy

On winning a medal, Ilya Molchanov, who came fourth in the individual event yesterday, said: “I missed my last dive yesterday and missed the podium. I was very disappointed. But I tried to forget about my failure. Today it was a new day. And it turned out to be a successful one”.

Results
Girls A, 1m springboard
1.      Wu Chunting (CHN), 421.30
2.      Maria Polyakova (RUS), 415.25
3.      Maddison Keeney (AUS), 415.00

Girls B, 5-7.5-10 m platform
1.      Song Anxin (CHN), 394.10
2.      Lois Mae Toulson (GBR), 352.90
3.      Li  Jinming (CHN), 351.05

Boys A+B, 3m synchro springboard
1.      Diego Lopes Rodrigo/Ornelas Adan Zuniga (MEX), 329.61
2.      Nikita Nikolaev/Ilya Molchanov (RUS), 307.80
3.      Sam Thornton/James Philip Hilty (GBR), 305.88