Qin Kai and Luo Yutong dominate Men’s Synchronised 3m Springboard heats - FINA Diving World Cup
World champions and Chinese duo, Qin Kai and Luo Yutong dominated the qualifying round of Men’s Synchronised 3m Springboard Diving on day one of the 2012 Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) Visa Diving World Cup at the Aquatics Centre, Olympic Park,
London on Monday, February 20.
The Chinese pair outperformed their competitors in a comfortable manner and entered the playoff as top contender for gold medal.
The 26-year-old Kai, who is the gold medallist of 3m synchronised discipline at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, paired up with Yutong in 2011 and together they grabbed victory in the same event at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai.
The duo faced no difficulty in capturing finest qualification spot of the event as they accomplished a score of 445.59 points. Their exceptional efforts in the prelims placed them in a lead of 26.01 points over Canada’s Alexandre Despatie and Reuben Ross,
who acquired second finest spot of the event by securing 419.58 points.
The Canadian pair remained nearly eight points ahead of Patrick Hausding and Stephan Feck of Germany, who reached the final round with a third best score of 411.96 points.
The Germans witnessed immense competition from USA’s Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen, who stayed just 0.06 points behind them and qualified into the finals as fourth best pair. The American divers achieved a score of 411.90 points.
The fifth qualification spot of the event was obtained by Lomas Bryan Nickson and Qiang Huang of Malaysia, who notched up a total of 402.09 points.
Mexico’s Yahel Castillo and Alejandro Daniel Islas were just 2.10 points apart from the Malaysian pair and seized 399.99 points to occupy sixth best spot for the final round.
Illya Kvasha and Oleksyi Prygorov of Ukraine emerged as the seventh best finisher of the event, as they gathered 398.88 points. They were followed Russia’s Evgeny Kuznetsov and Illya Zakharov, who earned eighth position for attaining 397.83 points.
Kai and Yutong were satisfied with their top qualification efforts in the 3m springboard discipline and expressed that they will try to defend their title by capturing gold medal in the final round.
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