Chen Ruolin impresses in Women’s 10m Platform qualifying round – 18th FINA Diving World Cup
Double Olympic gold medallist, Chen Ruolin of China impressed her fans by conquering the qualifying round of Women’s 10m Platform on primary day of the 18th Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) Visa Diving World Cup 2012 at the Olympic Aquatics Centre, London on Monday, February 20.
The 19-year-old Ruolin remained considerably ahead of her competitors and made her way to the semi-final round with a wonderful lead.
Ruolin was the gold medallist of 10m Platform and 10 Synchronised Platform at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The teenage Chinese expert defended her both titles with great audacity at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships, last July.
She was also the gold medallist of Synchronised discipline at the 2009 Rome world titles while obtained a silver finish in the 10m platform individual at the same championship.
With her exceptional capabilities and gruelling form, Ruolin was crowd’s top favourite to dominate the 10m Platform discipline on first day of the tournament.
She lived up to the hopes of her supporters by scoring 403.45 points for the finest qualification spot into the semi-final. She enjoyed an advantage of 63.60 points over Russia’s Yulia Koltunova, who gained a total of 339.85 points for the second best spot.
The third finest spot of the event was secured by Christin Steuer of Germany, who remained just 0.65 behind Koltunova and accomplished a score of 338.50 points.
The German expert was followed by Carolina Mendoza of Mexico, who was just 6.05 points away from her leading diver and notched up 332.55 points for fourth position.
Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito was the fifth best finisher of the discipline as she gained 327.30 points to enter the next round.
Monique Gladding of Great Britain was seven points away from Benfeito and made her way into the semi-final with an effort of 320.30 points.
Australia’s Loudy Wiggins and Japan’s Mai Nakagawa occupied seventh and eighth qualification spots with points of 318.40 and 317.00 points, respectively.
Furthermore, these competitors will compete with each other in the next round to occupy top spot in the playoff while Ruolin was confident that she would be able to defend her title.
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