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July 29, 2015

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Cagnotto denies China sweep in diving with 1m springboard gold

CHINA missed out on sweeping the diving gold medals at the swimming world championships when Tania Cagnotto of Italy won the women’s 1-meter springboard final yesterday.

Cagnotto, the reigning European champion, led from the start in Kazan, Russia, and held on through all five rounds for a winning score of 310.85 points, beating Shi Tingmao of China by 1.65 points.

The bronze medal went to another Chinese diver; He Zi, the former world champion, scored 300.30.

Cagnotto qualified for a sixth Olympics at age 30 despite getting outscored by Shi in the final round.

Shi’s last dive carried a 2.6 degree of difficulty compared to 2.4 for Cagotto. Shi earned 70.20 points to 61.20 for Cagnotto, who has never been higher than fifth at the Olympics. The Italian benefited from her early lead, carrying a 10.65-point advantage into the last round that allowed her to survive being outscored.

Between them, Shi and He had won three of the last four world titles in this event and Cagnotto’s win ended a streak of 14 world gold medals for China in women’s diving events. The previous world championship event in which China did not win gold was also the women’s 1m springboard, back in 2009.

Chinese divers had previously been enjoying a purple patch at Kazan’s Aquatics Palace by winning five of the five previous events in a bid to emulate their 2011 clean sweep of all ten diving medals when the world championships were held in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, there were medals at stake in the women’s 10-kilometer open water race earlier. A top-10 finish was just as good, though, since it secured a trip to next year’s Olympics in Rio.

Aurelie Muller of France won by 2.4 seconds after leading the last two laps on the Kazanka River. She hit the touchpad in 1 hour, 58 minutes, 4.3 seconds.

“It was a crazy race and my goal was top-10,” she said. “I’m very, very happy.”

Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands earned silver in 1:58:06.7. Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil took bronze in 1:58:26.5, finishing 22.2 seconds behind Muller to secure a berth for her home Olympics.

Muller and Van Rouwendaal prepared for the worlds while training together in France.

“I thought maybe I can win but Aurelie, she was too fast,” Van Rouwendaal said. “I think I’m much stronger next year and I can surprise myself again at Rio.”

Poliana Okimoto Cintra, the 2013 world champion, also qualified for Brazil, finishing sixth. Others qualifying for Rio were: Anastasia Krapivina of Russia, fifth; Isabelle Harle of Germany, seventh; and Anastasia Azarova of Russia, eighth.

Haley Anderson of the US, who won the non-Olympic 5k on Saturday, finished ninth in 1:58:35.9 to make her second straight Olympics. Eva Risztov of Hungary, the 2012 Olympic champion, grabbed the 10th and last qualifying spot.




 

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