Redemption and regret as 1st medals won at swimming worlds
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Australia’s Maddison Keeney claimed redemption and Russia snatched two gold medals on a day that ended in disappointment for China at the world swimming championships on Saturday.
Xie Siyi and Cao Yuan were on course for another men’s 3-meter springboard synchronized diving title for China after leading from the start, but Russians Ilia Zakharov and Evgenii Kuznetsov grabbed the win by 6.9 points with a decisive forward 4-1/2 somersaults tuck in the final round.
Cao expressed regret that China, which had won the synchronized event in eight of the last nine worlds, missed out on gold for the first time since 2003.
There wasn’t even a podium place for China in the women’s 1-meter springboard, where Keeney won to make up for her disappointment at the 2015 worlds in Kazan, Russia.