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Another diving gold for China
Athens - The names may change, but not the results. China still rules the Olympic diving pool.
The Chinese earned another gold medal - their fifth of the Athens Games - when Guo Jingjing easily won the women's 3m springboard on Thursday night. Team-mate Wu Minxia made it a 1-2 finish for the world's diving superpower, taking the silver.
The bronze went to Russia's Yulia Pakhalina.
It was the fifth straight win on springboard for the Chinese women, and the five gold medals match the country's total from the Sydney Games in 2000. They can surpass that standard in the final diving event of these games: men's 10m platform, which begins on Friday.
China won their first springboard gold in 1988, when Gao Min captured the first of two straight titles. Fu Mingxia pulled off the double in Atlanta and Sydney before giving way to Guo, who was the silver medallist four years ago.
Australia's Irina Lashko led heading into the final, but faded badly after a strong first dive. The three-time Olympian, who competed for Russia at the 1992 and 1996 Games, dropped to seventh.
Guo never faltered, receiving a perfect mark of 10 on her second dive and another on her fourth attempt to build a commanding lead. No one got so much height off the board, kept their spins so tight or created such a small splash when entering the water.
Guo had a bit of trouble on the entry of her final dive, receiving her lowest scores of the night. The large Chinese contingent at the indoor pool booed lustily, forcing Pakhalina to back away from the board for a few seconds.
It didn't matter. Guo still finished with 633.15 points, beating out her team-mate's total of 612.00. Pakhalina barely missed the silver, finishing third with 610.62.
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