DWS 2009 - Day 1: China continues to impress in Mexico

In this event, Kai was the winner in three out of the four legs of the World Series (Mexico, Changzhou and Sheffield), and finished second in Qatar. In all six dives he executed, he displayed he allied the technical perfection with an extremely high degree of difficulty.

Another regular diver was Yahel Castillo, who got the bronze in Qatar and Sheffield, while in Mexico, at home, conquered a valuable silver medal. With this result, the Mexican team has conquered so far six medals in the World Series: five bronze and one silver.

The pair Wang Han and Zi He was also the comfortable winner in the four meets of the World Series in the women's synchronised 3m springboard. In Mexico, the Chinese divers totalled 332.10 points. The podium was the same as in Sheffield with the second position occupied by Yulia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova (313.53), of Russia, and Sharleen Stratton and Briony Cole of Australia in third (302.52).

The women's platform was marked by the absence of Mexico's Paola Espinosa, who is recovering from chickenpox. But the Chinese were once more present and Kang Li took the gold in 374.75. She had been silver medallist in the previous three legs, a place now occupied by Wang Xin with 338.75. The third place went to Nora Subchinski (GER) with 330.15 points.

Podium of the women's synchronised 3m springboard

The gold medal number 27 for the Chinese team was in the men’s synchronised 10m platform, with a victorious performance by Zhang Yanque and Cao Yuan in 457.38. The silver medal was won by Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding of Germany (437.70) and the bronze went to USA’s Thomas Finchum and David Boudia (421.08).

Unlike other diving events in Mexico, the competition took place without spectators since an outbreak of influenza was detected in the last days in Mexico City. The local authorities then determined that crowds could not assemble in closed spaces.

At the end of the competition, Wang Han considered that competing without public "was different" but said the Chinese team is ready to win in any situation: “we must be constantly focused and try to do our best”.

Yulia Pakhalina also commented this situation: "We love to compete in Mexico, and it was strange that there were no spectators, but we train to give always the best. This synchro event is very important for Russia and we surely want to be present at the 2012 London Olympics.”