Chen stars in 10m platform synchro diving at World Championships

Chinese diver Chen Aisen won his third straight world championship title by partnering with Cao Yuan in the men’s 10-meter platform synchronised diving event Monday.

China took its overall tally at these swimming world championships to seven golds in the diving events as Wang Han and Shi Tingmao finished first in the women’s 3-meter springboard synchronised event.

Chen and Cao earned 486.93 points to beat silver medalists Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev of Russia, who finished with 444.60. Tom Daley and Matty Lee of Britain took bronze with 425.91 points.

Chen, a double Olympic champion, has now won world championship gold in the event with three different partners. He won his first title with Lin Yue in 2015 and then teamed up with Yang Hao in 2017.

For Cao it was his second gold at Gwangju as he also won the men’s 3-meter springboard synchro event on Saturday.

Earlier, Wang and Shi dived flawlessly to win the women’s event with 342.00 points.

Melissa Citrini Beaulieu and Jennifer Abel of Canada won silver with 311.10 points while Paola Espinosa Sanchez and Melany Hernandez Torres of Mexico took bronze with 294.90.

China’s swim king Sun Yang meanwhile faces a September hearing over explosive doping allegations that could potentially end his career, a senior FINA official said on Sunday.

A leaked FINA doping panel report claimed the triple Olympic champion had destroyed his own blood sample with a hammer, but Sun has nevertheless been cleared to compete at next week’s world championships in Gwangju, South Korea.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after FINA let Sun off on a legal technicality, although four months later the date of the hearing had yet to be set.

FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu has defended the stance taken by swimming’s ruling body, despite the bombshell contents of the doping panel report obtained by Australia’s     Sunday Telegraph.

“It’s very damaging,” Marculescu said. “I don’t know how it’s possible for something this confidential to go out to the world.

Sun and a security guard are said to have smashed vials of blood collected after independent testers visited the athlete’s villa in Zhejiang Province last September.

If WADA win their case and he is found guilty of a doping violation, Sun could face a lifetime ban after serving a three-month suspension in 2014 for taking banned stimulant he claimed was for a heart problem.

Associated Press