Qiu Bo closes the Diving World Cup with gold

The 20th FINA Diving World Cup came to an end yesterday, on Wednesday February 24, in Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), awarding the 10m platform gold and silver medals to China.

Qiu Bo and Chen Aisen were first and second scoring respectively 557.75 and 534.25. The podium was completed by David Dinsmore from the United States who got 497.05 points.

Qiu, silver medallist at the London 2012 Olympic Games and three times gold holder in FINA World Championships — Shanghai 2011, Barcelona 2013 and Kazan 2015 — said that every athlete can always do better.

“Diving is a sport in which your main opponent is yourself, so I and Aisen are part of a team and we don’t hide nothing from each other. We only train a lot and always look to improve. Today the semi-final was very close to the final. I felt a little bit tired and I noticed that I did some mistakes, but I like my result very much” said Qiu Bo.

Chen started in the fifth place and in the third round was seventh but he told that he was not in his best form in the beginning of the competition.

“I try not to pay attention to the marks I get, but I could have been better in the first dives. I’m good in synchro dives, but I think that I can fight for a better performance and , who knows? — to be on the first step of the podium” he explained.

He added that “he admires the Russian Dmitry Sautim who climbed the Olympic podium eight times: two gold, two silver and four bronze.

Chen also said that Qiu’s back dives are perfect and that he likes his colleague’s attitude during the competition.

Qiu Bo and Chen Aisen were competing between them for the first place, and David Dinsmore and his teammate, Steele Johnson, were fighting too, dive by dive. Johnson finished fourth with 481.40 pints, but he said that he did his maximum for the moment and that he was happy with the performance.

The 20th FINA Diving World Cup doubled up as the test event for the Olympic Games to take place in Rio this summer. 88 spots to the Olympics were attributed.
Evaluating the event, the executive director of the International Swimming Federation, Cornel Marculescu, said the competition won a note not 8.5.

“The athletes were satisfied and this is the most important to us. Test events are made for this, to test structure, organisation and services. Everyone dived and tried an outdoor arena and the climatic conditions. The Maria Lenk Aquatic Center is a great arena, just needs some adjustments. The issue of electricity is now completely solved. Making a comparison with the notes of diving I would give 8.5 to the event.” Marculescu said.