By Kane Wu
PARIS (Reuters) -China’s Quan Hongchan won the women’s 10-metre platform event on Tuesday, bagging the country’s fifth diving gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
Quan retained her Tokyo title on 425.60 points from teammate Chen Yuxi who again won silver. North Korea’s Kim Mi Rae took the bronze.
Quan and Chen, who won the synchronised 10m platform event last week, were clear favourites to reach the individual final having dominated the preliminary and semi-final rounds.
The 17-year-old Quan quickly demonstrate what perfection is in a dive by getting full marks from all the judges on her first dive – a forward 3-1/2 somersaults piked.
Quan made mistakes on her third dive, however, which allowed Chen, who turns 19 next month, to narrow the gap to 1.6 points after the 20-year-old executed a neat routine from an arm stand position to score 89.1 points, her highest in the final.
Quan quickly recovered with a better fourth dive, scoring 92.4 points to keep her lead, and finished well to claim gold.
The 23-year-old Kim got her second medal in Paris after taking silver in the synchronised 10m platform event.
(Reporting by Kane Wu; Editing by Ken Ferris)
