A clean sweep for China at Diving World Cup Super Final in Beijing

BEIJING, May 4 (Xinhua) -- With the last two gold medals going to Chen Jia and Zhu Zifeng, China swept all nine gold medals at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup Super Final, which concluded here at the National Aquatics Center on Sunday.

In addition, Chen Yuxi, a triple winner in Beijing, and Zhu Zifeng, the men's 10m platform champion, lifted the crystal Trophy as the Best Female and Male Divers.

In the women's 3m springboard, top seed Chen Jia continued her winning streak from 2 previous stops and clinched the title with 382.05 points, edging her Olympic champion teammate Chen Yiwen into second place with 368.40. Maddison Keeney of Australia and Chiara Pellacani of Italy followed as the third and fourth finishers.

As a rookie to the World Cup, Chen was happy about the victory. "I am really happy with the gold, but I still need to learn a lot from others. I should say I was a slow learner to the new format of head-to-head competition. I found my familiar pace only during the final," said Chen, who described herself a "late bloomer" as the 20-year-old entered the Chinese national team at the end of last year and made her international debut from 2025.

Two-time Olympic champion Chen Yiwen said she only recovered about 60 percent of her peak form. "I felt out of physical strength in such a tight schedule of challenges. However, I enjoy competing with other divers and will try to regain my form step by step," said the 25-year-old.

Zhu Zifeng and Cheng Zilong drew wild cheers from the crowd when both scored perfect 10s in their attempts in the men's 10m platform final.

Second-ranked Zhu Zifeng earned five 10s on his start dive 407C and collected five 90+ scores among six dives with a high mark 102.60 for his 207B, winning with 571.90 points for the title, which brought him the Trophy of the Best Male Diver of the World Cup.

"I didn't expect to win this gold medal because I finished second from the two previous stops but I also learned from it. I told myself to concentrate on my own techniques," said the 22-year-old.

"I did my best and improved myself on the final results. The competition format made me excited and nervous at the same time. I tried hard to take deep breath to relax myself before each dive," Cheng said.

"I don't really aim to get medals. My aim is to have fun and obviously the more fun I have, the better I do. So the competition is amazing. The fans are amazing. Beijing is amazing and I am here," added Rousseau, world champion of men's 10m platform in 2023 Fukuoka worlds.

The Super Final consisted of nine events and featured 75 divers from 17 countries and regions. According to organizers, the box office surpassed 5.28 million yuan (about 726,000 US dollars) overall, with over 21,000 spectators during the three-day competition. Enditem