Doha, Qatar, February 10, 2024: China ended the diving competition at the World Aquatics Championships – Doha 2024 on a high note as Yang Hao won men’s 10m platform gold and Tokyo Olympic champion Cao Yuan took silver at the Hamad Aquatic Centre on Saturday night.
In a riveting battle, Yang finally captured gold after collecting the 2019 silver and bronze in both ’22 and ‘23. Tokyo Olympic champion Cao won silver and 18-year-old Oleksii Sereda placed third for Ukraine.
With one round to go in the last event on the last day of diving, only 2.55 points split Yang and Cao – both of whom were seeking their first world title in the event.
In a heart-stopping final round, Yang prevailed with 564.05 points, followed by Cao with 553.20. Sereda, at 18, firmly claimed bronze with a personal best of 528.65. He had been competing at the senior world championships since 2019, when he was 13.
After the victory, Yang, 26, said: “Today was a big challenge for me. Everybody was doing well. I guess it is because 2024 is the year of the Olympics.”
He said the gold medal was “an important recognition of my hard work. This is a breakthrough. I’m very excited about my score today.”
Runner-up Cao, 29, added: “I thought too much during the competition because I wanted my dives to be perfect. I made errors in the first dive which I believe affected my other dives, too.
“I have to work on my physical and mental strength. I think I’m still technically capable of improving. In the end. I will rate this Doha trip 8.50 out of 10.”
NOTE: China ended the diving competition with nine gold medals and four silver medals for 13 medals in total. DPR Korea won two silvers and Korea won two bronze medals.
(World Aquatics)
