However, the second day in Doha was highlighted by a thrilling men’s 10m platform, in which the Chinese were for the only time in the competition seriously threatened. Luxin Zhou (546.75) managed to take the gold, but had to overcome the Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham, second in a very close 545.25. Bo Qiu (also from China) was third in 544.90, in a contest plenty of changes in the lead. After the first two dives (out of six), Mitcham was in first, but the third, fourth and fifth attempt from Bo Qiu almost reached perfection, with the young Chinese athlete getting four 10s in his fourth dive and getting into the lead before the last attempt. Then, he missed his dive, while Zhou had 9/9.5 for his last combination, getting the gold. Overall, it was a fair victory, as Zhou was the most regular diver throughout the final – never got less than 8.5 from the judges. Moreover, this gold for Zhou was a kind of revenge from the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (CHN), where he ‘allowed’ Mitcham to become the only non-Chinese gold medallist in this discipline, finishing then in the second position.
He Zi and Wang Han - Doha (QAT)
For the remaining events, it was China all the way through, with gold and silver in the women’s 3m springboard (also an interesting fight between Minxia Wu and Zi He, which ended up with the victory for Wu, the 2008 Olympic bronze medallist), and also comfortable wins in both the men’s 3m springboard synchro and women’s 10m platform synchro. Besides China and Australia, the countries with medals in this second day were Canada, Great Britain and Russia (with Dmitry Sautin, the best male diver in activity being second with Yuri Kunakov in the men’s 3m springboard synchro).