Diving powerhouse China again proved its dominance on the first day of the 2018 FINA/CNSG Diving World Series at the Water Cube in Beijing on Friday March 9, as the host divers swept all four gold medals at stake in the synchro events with big margin on points, leaving no chance for their rivals.

Chinese rookies Zhang Jiaqi and Zhang Minjie, both 14 years old, opened a perfect day for the host team as the duo took the lead from the first dive to the end in the women's 10m synchronised platform, winning the gold with 368.22 points. Cheong Jun Hoong/Panmg Pandelela of Malaysia came to second in 312.24 and Taneka Kovchenko/Melissa Wu of Australia took the bronze medals in 299.46.

Chen Yiwen/Wang (CHN)

"We just tried our best and concentrated on the competition", Zhang said.

Rio Olympic champion Chen Aisen claimed the men's 10m synchronised platform title in 484.29 with his partner, World champion Yang Hao, beating the second-ranked Maksym Dolgov and Oleksandr Gorshkovozov from Ukraine by 66.36 points.

Great Britain's star divers Thomas Daley/Daniel Goodfellow finished third in 400.68.

"Though I am still finding out my normal form, I did my best today. My partner Yang did a great job," Chen smiled.

"I have three events here: today, tomorrow and on Sunday. It's always great to come back to Beijing, to China and it's always a tough competition. But at the moment, this is my first competition of the season, I didn't do the National Championships, so right now I am just brushing off the cobwebs and get oiling up the machine," Daley said.

The home crowd were cheered again in the evening's competition.

Chen Yiwen/Wang Han topped the women's 3m synchronised springboard in 336.12, ahead of Qin Esther/Anabelle Smith of Australia 297.60. Jennifer Abel/Melissa Citrini Beaulieu of Canada took the bronze.


Australian pair

"We started to be a pair a week ago, after Chen returned from the FINA Grand Prix in Germany, since the other synchro diver got injured. We did our best and emerged victorious," said the 27-year-old Wang.

Olympic champion Cao Yuan and World champion Xie Siyi pocketed the gold medals in the men's 10m platform synchro in 497.36. Evgenii Kuzketsov/Ilia Zakharov of Russia won the silver in 442.86 and Olksandr Gorshkovozo/Oleg Kolodiy of Ukraine third in 406.89.

"It was a pity that we finished second in Budapest World Championships last year, because we just trained together for six weeks. This time, we were more familiar with each other and improved a lot. We were confident that we could win this time," Cao said.

"We have been training for the whole winter and felt confident coming into this competition," Cao said, "Everytime I came into the facility (Water Cube), I can feel extra motivation to win the gold."

Beijing is the first of the four-leg 2018 FINA Diving World Series. After Beijing, this year's circuit will stop in Fuji, Japan (March 15 to 17); Montreal, Canada (April 27 to 29); and Kazan, Russia (May 4 to 6).