China stayed perfect yesterday in the world championships diving events as grieving British star Tom Daley’s hopes were hit by a last-minute illness to his 10m synchro partner Peter Waterfield.
Olympic champion Huo Liang combined with new partner Qiu Bo to claim his third straight world title in the event, shrugging off the loss of long-time team-mate Lin Yue to injury.
Huo and Qiu totalled 480.03 points, leaving Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein 37.02 adrift in the silver medal position with Ukrainians Oleksandr Gorshkovozov and Oleksandr Bondar claiming bronze.
Individual 10m world champion Daley, 17, whose father died from brain cancer just two months ago, finished sixth with Waterfield, who missed a week of training with flu-like symptoms.
“I think our performance went OK considering the situation. Myself and Pete haven’t been able to train for a week because Pete’s been a little bit unwell so it was our first training session yesterday,” said Daley.
“I think we’re very lucky that we were able to compete and I think we did quite well considering the circumstances and it’s quite windy up there (on the platform) as well,” he added.
Daley, who will defend his individual title at the outdoor Crescent Lagoon venue, said competing had helped lift his spirits after the loss of his father, Robert, who was his ever-present companion on the diving circuit.
“Obviously it’s been a tough couple of months and diving is what I love to do, it’s what my dad loved and it’s something that I’m definitely going to do just because that’s what he would have wanted me to do,” Daley said.
“It’s always good to come away and spend some time with your team-mates. It’s great to train with everyone. It’s good to see everyone again and feel the vibe at training. It’s actually a bit of a buzz.”
Huo and Qiu also overcame obstacles to claim gold. The two had been together for just a matter of months after Lin was ruled out through injury, underlining the Chinese diving dynasty’s extraordinary strength in depth.
“I haven’t worked with Qiu Bo for so long, but our cooperation was smooth and we relate well,” said Huo. Qiu added that it would “depend on the leaders’ arrangements” whether the two would combine at next year’s Olympics.
China also won the women’s 3m synchro on Saturday as they target the first ever clean sweep of diving titles, after winning seven out of 10 two years ago in Rome.
Meanwhile Russia’s synchronised swimming queen Natalia Ishchenko claimed the event’s first gold – and her 11th world title – when she won the technical solo ahead of China’s Huang Xuechen and Andrea Fuentes of Spain.
In the men’s diving final, Huo and Qiu stamped their authority with a piked backwards 3.5 somersault and rounded it off with a backwards two-and-a-half somersault with two-and-a-half twists which won them 98.28 points.
American David Boudia, a 2009 silver medallist, and his partner Nick McCrory rued a botched fifth dive which kept them out of the medals, despite placing second in the preliminaries.