Diving, Day 5: Mixed team title goes to China for the first time

China continues its golden hunting at the Gwangju FINA World Championships as Lin Shan/Yang Jian claimed the mixed team event at the fifth day of the competition. It was the first time Chinese divers wrote their names on the record book since the mixed team event was introduced in the Worlds in Kazan 2015.

British star Tom Daley/Rebecca Gallantree and French pair Laura Marino/Matthieu Rosset were the winners of the event in two previous editions. The best result for China until today was a bronze medal in 2015 by Chen Ruolin/Xie Siyi.

A total of 16 pairs competed in the mixed team event in Gwangju as one male and one female diver each take three attempts. Among six dives, three have to come from the 3m springboard, and the other three must be done on the 10m platform. 

Lin, three-time Youth Olympic champion, and Yang, men's 10m platform bronze medallist in Budapest two years ago, never met strong challenges by leading all the way for the title in 416.65 points.  

Yang showed his trade-mark highest difficult dive, a 109B (Forward 4 1/2 somersault pike, with 4.1 DD) and earned a day-high 90.20 to contribute to the victory. 

Russian pair Iuliia Timoshinina/Sergey Nazin concluded in the second position in 390.05, followed by Andrew Capobianco/Katrina Young of the United States (357.60). Leong Mun Yee/Chew Yiwei of Malaysia were 9.8 points behind for the fourth place.

Competing in her 10^th World Championships, former 10m platform world champion Paola Espinosa and her partner Ivan Garcia of Mexico had to content with the 10^th place. South Korean diver Kim Yeong-nam withdrew from the event due to triceps injury.

QUOTES

Yang Jian (CHN), gold: 

“I only knew I would compete in this event one week ago. We did not have time to train together. The most important thing was to show our best in the competition.”

Lin Shan (CHN), gold: 

“I was scared of competition when I was younger, but I am not anymore. I tried to adjust my breath and told myself to relax. It was my first world title and also first for China in this event, I was proud of that.”

Katrina Young (USA), bronze: 

“It was the second medal after 10m synchro, all in bronze. I was happy about that. I competed in the event for the first time and the coolest part of it was that I could watch my partner's dive and cheered up for him as louder as possible. It was fun!”

Andrew Capobianco (USA), bronze:

“I am a springboard person. I was excited to compete together with Katrina and to encourage each other. It was a different feeling compared with other events. I felt more relaxed and enjoyed a lot the competition.”