BERLIN — China’s Chen Yiwen claimed the women’s 3m springboard title, while her compatriot Lian Junjie won the men’s 10m platform gold at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup here on Saturday.
Following her title at the first stop of the World Cup in Montreal earlier in March, two-time 3m springboard world champion Chen collected a winning score of 356.40 points. Runner-up Maddison Keeney of Australia threw the hardest dive in the final round with a 3.4 degree of difficulty and scored 81.60, which put her 17 points ahead of the bronze winner, Sarah Bacon of the United States.
Despite her win, Chen was not satisfied with the results. “The World Cups take place after the World Championships and those make me feel a bit tired. I had many competitions but don’t have enough time to review my dives,” she said.
Lian led after each round and broke the 500-point barrier to win the gold. He scored at least 90 points on each of his last four dives. Rylan Wiens of Canada took silver, and the 2023 world champion Cassiel Rousseau of Australia rounded out the podium.
“I did a really good job today and I’m pretty happy about the scores,” said 23-year-old Lian. “I hope to earn the chance to compete in both individual and synchro events at the Paris Olympics.”
Chinese divers are also the favorites to win the individual events on Sunday, with the triple world champion Wang Zongyuan leading the men’s 3m springboard preliminaries, while the reigning world and Olympic champion Quan Hongchan qualified for the women’s 10m platform final as the top finisher.