China completes stunning clean sweep

China completed a stunning clean sweep of the 13 diving gold medals at the FINA World Championships in Budapest on Sunday.

The last time China swept the diving titles at the worlds was in Shanghai in 2011－when there were 10 gold medals on offer.

In a remarkable campaign by Team China in the Hungarian capital, Wang Zongyuan became the first ever diver to win three golds at a single world championships, while Chen Yiwen's victory in the women's 3-meter springboard saw the nation top the podium in the event at the championships for the 11th straight time, dating back to 2001.

Yang Jian had the honor of completing the sweep when he retained the men's 10m platform title in a roller-coaster final on Sunday.

The 28-year-old rebounded from two poor dives in the second and third rounds, after which he ranked seventh, to deliver three excellent dives and score a winning total of 515.55 points.

Fellow Chinese Yang Hao claimed the bronze on 485.45 points, with Japan's Rikuto Tamai pipping Hao to silver by a mere 2.55 points.

"It has been almost a year since we last competed in international competitions," said Yang Jian. "I could not find my rhythm at the beginning. But I made adjustments in the last couple of dives."

"The Japanese diver performed very well for most of the final. I was the one trying to catch up with him," added Yang Jian, who won silver in the event at last year's Tokyo Olympic Games behind teammate Cao Yuan.

Yang Jian chose a dive with a 4.1 difficulty level for his last round, which earned him a top score of 102.50 points to wrap up victory.

Hundreds of Chinese supporters, wearing red jerseys and waving national flags generated a home atmosphere for the Team China divers at Duna Arena.

"So many Chinese fans came here today. We hadn't dived in front of so many people for such a long time. We should get used to that," said Yang Hao, who earlier in the meet paired with Lian Junjie to win gold in the 10m synchronized.

The 24-year-old Yang Hao also won a silver in the 10m individual three years ago at the worlds in Gwangju, South Korea.

Earlier in the afternoon, Chen Yiwen and Chang Yani cruised to the women's 3m springboard synchronized title.

The pair collected a total of 343.14 points from five dives as each clinched a second medal. Chen was crowned champion in the 3m springboard individual event on Saturday while Chang finished with a bronze.

Sayaka Mikami and Rin Kaneto of Japan scored 303.00 points for silver, 8.88 ahead of Australia's Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith.

"It's a great honor for me to win the world title in the synchronized event again," said Chang, who won gold in the event five years ago in Budapest alongside multiple Olympic champion Shi Tingmao.

"We saw many fans here today, we really appreciate their support and we are so proud of ourselves," Chen said.

Xinhua