FINA diving World series 2018: Russia and China golden on day 1
The FINA Diving World Series kicked off in Kazan. 55 athletes from 12 countries arrived in the capital city of Tatarstan to compete for medals of the prestigious tournament. The morning session of Day 1 ran successfully for the Russian and Chinese powerhouses. Both teams managed to start the competitions with their victories.
The women’s 10m platform synchro event opened the Kazan leg of the FINA Diving World Series. China’s Lin Shan and Si Yajie executed six dives better than anybody else in the pool, scoring 324.24 points, and pleased their team with a gold medal of the tournament. North Korea’s Kim Kuk Hyang and Kim Mi Rae scored 320.58 points to lose less than 4 points to their opponents. Malaysia’s Pandelela Pamg and Cheong Jun Hoong earned 318.54 points for their six rounds and finished third.
The triumph of Lin Shan and Si Yajie strengthened the leadership of the Chinese women’s team in the overall ranking of the FINA Diving World Series in this discipline. Now the Chinese are 9 points ahead of the nearest contenders from Malaysia.
The men’s synchro event continued the opening competition day. The Russian divers remained favourites as all the six dives did not let Victor Minibayev and Alexander Bondar fall lower than the third position. As a result, the host team of the competitions accomplished their performance with the score of 423.72 points, leaving the Ukranian duet, Alexander Gorshkovozov and Maxim Dolgov, 18 points behind. Timo Barthel and Florian Fandler will take the bronze medal back to Germany. They executed all their dives smoothly, with no errors, and stepped on the third spot of the podium after the six rounds (345.36 points).
Team Russia dominates in the 10m synchro overall ranking of the FINA Diving World Series. The Ukrainians fall just three points behind. So far failing to earn any points during the Kazan round, the Chinese powerhouse occupies the third spot in the ranking.