Olympics: China's He leaps to gold in diving, Despatie wins silver

Wednesday 20 August 2008

BEIJING - China's He Chong clinched the men's 3m springboard title on Tuesday, maintaining the host nation's perfect gold medal record in diving at these Olympics.

World number one He soared into the lead with his first dive, scoring four perfect 10s from the judges and roars of support from the packed Chinese crowd, and never looked back, winning by more than 30 points.

With the 21-year-old from Guangdong simply extending his lead with every near perfect dive, the battle turned to silver and bronze, between teammate Qin Kai and Canada's Alexandre Despatie.

The Canadian held off the world champion, winning silver to match the one he won in Athens four years ago, with Qin taking third.

China have now claimed six out of six diving golds in Beijing, equalling their best ever tally in Athens four years ago, with two events still to come.

"Today is the happiest day of my life," He said.

"I didn't care so much about the score during the diving. In the end I knew I had probably won.

"This gold has a different meaning. I have always made little mistakes and been nervous in big events but this time I controlled myself better and did what my coaches wanted me to do."

He revealed that as a younger diver he was passed between coaches before switching from the platform to the springboard where he found his niche.

"When I was young, my condition was not very good, in the platform I could not perform very well, and I changed coaches many times," he said.

"If your condition is not good, then the coaches don't want to train you."

He finished with 572.90 points, with Despatie 36.25 behind on 536.65 and 22-year-old Qin on 530.10 points.

For Despatie, the silver came after fighting back from injuries, including breaking his right foot in February and hurting his back, which threatened his chances at this Games, and then poor results in the preliminaries here.

"I dug myself out of an enormous hole to win this medal," he said.

"This means the world, my silver medal is golden for me because nothing was good this year," the 23-year-old said, adding he now plans to continue on until the London Games in 2012.

In the fifth round, Qin and Despatie performed the same dive, an inwards three and a half somersault tuck, with the Chinese champion scoring slightly higher than the Canadian.

Just over five points separated the pair heading into the last round, with both performing ambitious dives to get over the line. But the Canadian edged out the Chinese with a foward two and a half somersault with two twists.

Russia's Dmitry Sautin, 34, who has won eight medals over five Olympics including silver here in the 3m synchronised event, finished fourth.

The 34-year-old Russian, almost certainly competing at his last Olympics, said beforehand that he wanted to walk away with one more medal.

World number two Yahel Castillo, who kept up with the leaders during the semi-finals, faded to seventh, denying Mexico its first gold medal in Beijing.