World champions Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing of China defeated injury
and their rivals to win the women's 3m synchronized diving gold
medal at the 14th Asian Games on Tuesday.
The pair collected 319.80 points from five dives, beating
SouthKorean duo Kang Min-kyung and Im Sung-young, who had 248.04
points,to the second place.
Abdullah Farah Begum and Leong Mun Yee won Malaysia its first ever
Asiad diving medal with a 245.34 total.
"It's true we were both injured. We both knocked our legs during
training but it didn't hamper us too much," said Guo, a veteran at
20 who partnered the world diving wonder girl Fu Mingxia to take
Olympic silver in the event two years ago.
Both divers had bandages on their shins but they still managed to
pull 25 points clear of South Korea after the first three
dives.
They took risks to rack up the points, perfectly executing a
backward two-and-half somersault on their third dive as their
rivals stuck to the easier forward two-and-a-half somersault
Their gamble paid off with a perfect 10 from the Thai judge
forsynchronization -- the only 10 of the morning.
They capped their performance with a delightful reverse
two-and-a-half somersault to the roars of an appreciative
crowd.
It
is the first gold in diving decided at the Asian Games. China is
expected to clinch all eight diving golds on offer in Busan.
China collected every gold in Bangkok at the last Asiad four years
ago.
The men's 10m synchronized platform is decided later Tuesday.
(Xinhua News
Agency October 8, 2002)