China's Chen Yiwen Wins Women's 3m Springboard Diving At Paris Olympics

PARIS, Aug 10 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- China’s Chen Yiwen added the women’s 3m springboard gold to her synchronised title on Friday, securing China’s seventh gold at the Paris Olympics, Xinhua reported.

Chen, 25, led from start to finish, accumulating a total of 376.00 points for her second Olympic title in Paris.

"I cannot be more happy," said Chen. "Of course I could dive better, but this was an Olympic final, so I'm really satisfied with my performance."

Chen's teammate Chang Yani finished third with 318.75. Australia's Maddison Keeney took the silver medal with 343.10 points.

Chang, who paired up with Chen to clinch the synchronised title, made a disastrous start as she only earned 42 points from her first dive.

But the 22-year-old reigning world champion kept her composure to come back from the last position in 12 divers to a podium finish.

"I knew I had to nail all the following four dives, or I won't have any chance to win a medal," said Chang.

The 2022 and 2023 world champion Chen dominated the event since the preliminary round, and met no challenge all the way to China's 10th consecutive Olympic title in this event.

She admitted that her teammate's failure in the first round created extra pressure on her, "but it also inspired me to give it all in my dives."

China's diving team has taken all seven golds so far, with one more to go on Saturday. Chang and Chen were confident that their teammates Cao Yuan and Yang Hao could complete the sweep for China.

Defending champion Cao led the preliminary round on Friday, while reigning world champion Yang was ranked fourth after a poor second dive.

The top 12 athletes from the semifinal on Saturday morning will advance to the final that evening.

-- BERNAMA-XINHUA