Chinese Rookies Pair Pocket Two Golds in Wuhan Diving World Cup

The FINA (International Swimming Federation) Diving World Cup 2018 held in Wuhan, China, is currently in a heated competition. 14-years-old Chinese athletes Zhang Jiaqi and Zhang Minjie won the gold medal out of all prominent competitors in the final of Women’s Synchronized Platform on June 7th. Players from DPRK and Canada were respectively awarded silver and bronze medal.

The awarding ceremony of Women’s Synchronized Platform (Photo by Zhang Yongliang)

In the qualification match earlier this month, Zhang Jiaqi and Zhang Minjie took the leading position since the first dive. Four out of their five dives were marked top scores, which ensured the pair’s ranking with a high score of 324.30 in the qualification match. On the fourth dive of the finals, Zhang Jiaqi showed some flaws in performing 407C, yet the pair synchronized normally. This dive was marked an 84.48 by referees and was added to their leading score of 275.88. 5253B was chosen to be the final dive by the two diving rookies, which was perfectly done. A 10 was given by one of the referees on this dive. Consequently, this Chinese rookie pair was awarded gold medal with a score of 366.16 followed by DPRK pair’s 328.98 (silver medal) and Canadian pair’s 324.42 (bronze medal).

Zhang Jiaqi (left), Zhang Minjie (right) are interviewed after winning gold medals. (Photo by Zhang Yongliang)

According to the regulations by FINA, any athlete above 14 years old is eligible to attend international competitions for adults. Zhang Jiaqi, a 14-year-old girl, has made her first appearance on the stage of international championship winning two gold medals both in Women’s Single Platform and Women’s Synchronized Platform. Particularly, Zhang won the gold medal in Women’s Single Platform on June 6th with a predominant score of 427.30. It marks not only a personal success for the rookie Zhang Jiaqi, but we also witness a rising star in the Chinese diving history is on her path of triumph.