Chinese divers back to winning ways at Universiade

Kazan (Russia), July 11 (IANS)

Huo Liang of China in action.

Chinese divers Huo Liang and Zheng Shuangxue won the men’s 10-metre platform and women’s 3-metre springboard titles at the Universiade here.

China also won the silver medals of the two events Wednesday through Wu Jun and Jia Dongjin, respectively, reports Xinhua.

In the first four diving events, China won only one gold while hosts Russia took two and Australia won the other gold.

In the men’s 10-metre platform final, 2008 Beijing Olympic champion Huo Liang, in synchronised diving, beat back the challenge from Mexican and Russian opponents winning the title in 531.25 points.

“The final was tough, the atmosphere was great. I really enjoyed the competition,” said Huo Liang, who is one of the four Chinese Olympic champions taking part in the tourney.

The gymnastics tournament concluded Wednesday with Russian gymnasts winning the lion’s share of gold medals. Zhangye Linzi, the only Chinese female gymnast, surprisingly won the balance beam event beating Olympic and European champions from Russia.

Russia won 10 gymnastics titles while China, Japan, North Korea, Brazil and South Korea each won a gold. Russia was also dominant in the track and field events winning five out of 10 events. Russian athletes were also victorious in swimming, judo and fencing.

Russia, currently, has won a total of 62 gold medals, followed by Japan, China and South Korea with seven gold medals each.