By Michael Church, OCA Media
Tokyo, Japan, September 30, 2026: Lian Junjie won the men’s 10 metre platform at the Tokyo Aquatic Centre in dramatic fashion on Wednesday as China completed a clean sweep of Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 diving golds with the country’s 100th consecutive Asian Games title.
Lian was pushed all the way by Japan’s Rikuto Tamai but the experience of the 25-year-old, who won gold in the 10 metre synchronised platform at the Olympic Games, told in the end.
A total of 501.25 points saw Lian finish ahead of Tamai on 497.20 points as Chinese 15-year-old Zhao Renjie, who led the standings at the halfway point, secured the bronze with 427.50 points.
“I am extremely happy,” said Lian. “On the final day of competition, this was also the Chinese diving team’s 10th gold medal at these Games and its 100th in Asian Games history.
“Securing this gold medal was far from easy. It means a great deal to me, and I am very happy.
“This milestone was made possible by the efforts of our predecessors, built up little by little over generations. Their work has given us the sense of mission and responsibility that we carry today.
“I hope the Chinese diving team continues to grow stronger, and I wish our country prosperity.”
Chinese divers have won every gold medal in diving at the Asian Games since 1974 and it appeared Zhao and Lian would continue that dominance with few issues in the early phase of the competition.
Zhao Renjie, in particular, was almost flawless in the opening three rounds but an error on his fourth dive proved costly, rattling the youngster’s confidence and another mistake in the next round left him out of contention for gold.
Tamai, meanwhile, dived consistently to put pressure on the Chinese duo even as Lian took control with stellar dives in the fourth and fifth rounds.
The Japanese athlete scored 93.60 points with his final dive, a backward two-and-a-half somersaults with two-and-a-half twists and pike, to put the focus on Lian, who faltered slightly with a less-than-perfect entry but still managed to hold to the gold by 4.05 points.
“Looking at the event as a whole, I'd say I performed consistently this time,” said Tamai, who improved on his bronze medal-winning performance at Hangzhou 2022.
“But if I can improve the quality and beauty of each individual dive and raise the score of every performance just a little more, my overall score will increase significantly. So I want to improve the score of each dive one by one.”