World Aquatics Championships 2024: China wins two more diving golds in another dominant performance

With its sights on the Paris Olympics, China is turning in another dominant diving performance on the world stage.

Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi finished 1-2 in the men’s 3-meter on Wednesday, while Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani captured their third straight gold medal in women’s synchronized springboard at the World Aquatics Championships.

China didn’t enter the first two events of the meet, which comes just five months ahead of the Summer Games, but the country has been nearly unbeatable since then.

Other than an 11th-place showing in men’s 1-meter springboard, a non-Olympic event in which China entered only one athlete, the diving superpower has taken gold in the other six disciplines. Most of them have been runaway victories.

Meanwhile, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands completed a sweep of the women’s individual open water races by taking gold in the 5-kilometer at Old Doha Port. In a thrilling finish, Logan Fontaine of France claimed the men’s title in the non-Olympic event.

In the men’s solo free of artistic swimming, Giorgio Minisini of Italy added a gold medal to the silver he captured in the solo technical event.

Xie led the preliminaries and semifinals at Hamad Aquatic Centre, but it was Wang who took control in the final. He ripped off one stellar dive after another on the way to a total score of 538.70, relegating Xie to the silver in 516.10.