London: With stunning precision and dazzling athleticism, Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao led China to another gold medal off the big tower in women's 10-meter synchronized diving on Tuesday.
The Chinese were tied for second after the first round behind the British duo, which gave the home crowd a brief thrill, but no one could keep up with Chen and Wang. They never scored lower than 8.5 on any of their five dives, and even picked up a perfect 10 in the final round for perfect synchronization to win, going away with 368.40 points.
That makes China three-for-three at London, nearly halfway to its goal of sweeping the eight diving events.
Ruolin followed up her 10-meter synchro win at the Beijing Olympics, when she competed with a different partner. She is also the defending Olympic champion and heavy favorite in the women's individual event off the 10-meter tower.
Mexico's Paola Espinosa and 15-year-old Alejandra Orozco took the silver with 343.32, while Canada's Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito claimed bronze with 337.62.
The United States, which won medals in the first two synchronized events, failed to qualify a team in women's 10-meter synchro. This is the only diving event the Americans missed at the London Games. They hope to resume their medal-winning ways with Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen competing in men's 3-meter springboard synchro on Wednesday.
Everyone, it seems, is going for silver.
The Chinese are trying to become the first nation to sweep all eight diving events since the program was doubled at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. They nearly pulled it off in Beijing, winning seven golds before Australia's Matthew Mitcham pulled an upset in the men's 10-meter platform.
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