China grabbed four gold medals of the Olympic Games on Saturday
after Tian Liang and Yan Jinghui won men's synchronized 10m
platform finals.
Britain's Leon Taylor/Peter Waterfield won the silver with
371.52 and Australia's Mathew Helm/Robert Newberry got the bronze
with 366.84.
Guo/Wu win women's synchronized 3m
springboard
Earlier, Guo Jinging and Wu Minxia won the women's synchronized
3m springboard finals.
Yulia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina of Russia took the silver and
Australians Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery the bronze of the
women's synchronized 3m springboard.
The world champions led from the opening dive to chalk up 336.9
points and finish comfortably clear of defending champions and
great rivals Yulia Pakhalina and Vera Ilyina of Russia.
The Russians, also beaten into silver by Guo and Wu in the last
two world championships, were 6.06 points behind on 330.84 with
Australians Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery taking bronze with
309.30.
Guo and Wu lived up to their favorites' billing by producing a
series of superb dives, opening a virtually unbeatable lead after
four rounds.
Pakhalina and Ilyina gave it their best shot with their final
attempt, however, recording a rare perfect 10 from one
synchronization judge en route to the best individual dive score of
the final, 82.80 points.
But it was still not enough to haul in Guo and Wu.
"We were confident all along because we had faith in our
ability," said Guo. "As a Chinese person it is a great honor to win
for my country and I will do all I can to be able to take part in
the 2008 Games (hosted by Beijing)."
Their performance took China to the top of the medals table with
three golds, having won the first two events of the day in
shooting.
They were also in with a chance of making it four in the day's
last event, the men's synchronized 10 meter platform diving, where
Tian Liang and Yang Jingjui were among the favorites.
Also on Saturday, Wang Yifu rallied to defeat Russia's Mikhail
Nestruev on the final shot in the men's 10-metre air pistol
competition.
Before Wang, Du Li had won the first gold medal of the Olympics
with a remarkably similar triumph in the women's 10-metre air rifle
event, coming from behind to knock another Russian, Lioubov
Galkina, into second place.
China's perfect two-for-two start on the first day of the
shooting competition underscored the confident predictions of
Chinese officials, who had said their team should win up to 10
medals in the 17 shooting events.
Wang, 43, had trailed throughout the 10-shot pistol finals but
outscored his Russian rival, who was standing just to his left, on
their crucial last shot to win with a total of 690.0 points to
Nestruev's 689.8.
Nestruev, the European champion who had set an Olympic record of
591 points in the qualifying round earlier on Saturday, took the
silver medal while his compatriot Vladimir Isakov outduelled
Bulgaria's Tanyu Kiriakov for the bronze.
Sydney gold medallist Franck Dumoulin of France did not even reach
the eight-man finals, stumbling in the qualifications into a
disappointing three-way tie for 20th place, 14 points behind the
35-year-old Nestruev.
Wang, who won the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics and finished
second both in 1996 and 2000, appeared to be heading for another
silver medal through the final round as Nestruev hit the bullseye
on five of his first eight shots.
Nestruev was still leading by a full point after the eighth
round before Wang outpointed him by 10.3 to 9.3 on the penultimate
shot to even the score at 680.1 and send a roar through the indoor
arena.
Maintaining his poker face, Nestruev shot first in the final
round and scored 9.7 while Wang, breathing heavily, first put his
pistol back down for a moment. He then looked up, aimed and scored
a 9.9 to beat Nestruev.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2004)
