Wu Minxia pockets Women’s 3m Springboard gold: Day five – 18th FINA Diving World Cup
Double Olympic champion and Chinese diving specialist, Wu Minxia lived up to the expectations of her supporters by pocketing gold medal of Women’s 3m Springboard on fifth day of the 18th Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA) Visa Diving World Cup 2012 at the Aquatics Centre, Olympic Park in London on Friday, February 24.
The 26-year-old Minxia, who qualified into the semi-final as best diver but ended second in the semi-final behind He Zi, geared up her struggle in the final round and clinched gold medal of the event.
Her scintillating form in the playoff exceeded hopes of her fans and she is now China’s top most hope for gold medal at the forthcoming 2012 London Olympic Games.
Minxia, who obtained gold medal of the Synchronised 3m Springboard along with a silver medal in the 3m individual discipline at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. With her irresistible efforts, she achieved the same in the Synchronised discipline while snared bronze in the 3m Springboard at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
With her invincible efforts, Minxia captured titles of both 3m disciplines at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai.
Minxia made a significant improvement in her score and acquired gold medal of the 3m event by clinching 368.95 points in the final round. She remained 3.55 points behind her strongest competitor, Zi, who followed her on the medal rostrum for silver medal by gaining a wonderful score of 365.40 points.
In the meantime, the crowd witnessed a laudable effort of Italy’s Tania Cagnotto, who stayed almost twenty points behind her leading finisher and settled on the victory stand for bronze medal with an effort of 345.75 points.
The fourth finest spot of the event was obtained by Pamela Ware of Canada, who stayed 4.45 points behind third position holder and achieved 341.30 points. Anna Lindberg of Sweden settled on the rankings list for fifth position, as she remained just 0.05 points away and gained a total of 341.25 points.
Minxia was overjoyed with her tremendous effort in her main event whereas the winners received accolades at the medal ceremony of the championship after the session.
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