Tokyo, Japan, August 7, 2021: China underlined their diving supremacy by securing the seventh of eight gold medals on offer on the last day of the programme at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Saturday afternoon.
It was hardly a surprise that the men’s 10m platform ended in a 1-2 for China, with Cao Yuan taking gold with 582.35 points for his six dives and Yang Jian finishing second with 580.40.
The fight for the bronze was quite interesting, with Tom Daley (GBR) prevailing with a total score of 548.25.
This is the first gold-silver double for China in this event since 2000.
The only final China lost here was the men’s 10m platform synchro, beaten by Britain, but otherwise it was gold all the way.
It is the fifth medal for 26-year-old Cao at his third Olympics and he becomes the first diver to win Olympic gold in three different events – 10m synchro at London 2012, 3m springboard at Rio 2016 and 10m platform here.
Champion Cao commented: “I would give myself 8 out of 10 – my only regret is the synchro 10m platform, where I didn’t get gold. I had a failed dive then, and I spoiled that opportunity. Today, I compensated for that.
“These Olympic Games have been postponed by one year. We have been training a lot, but things are not finished yet: we now have our National Games, a quite important competition for us.”