China's Diving dominion reclaims Women's 10m Platform

China's Diving dominion reclaims Women's 10m Platform

Chen Roulin claimed gold in the Women's 10m Platform with a score of 447.70, edging out Canadian Emilie Heymans by 10.65 points with a spectacular 100.30-point final dive and giving China its first Olympic gold in the event since Atlanta 1996. The host nation has now claimed seven Diving gold medals in Beijing and needs just one more -- the Men's 10m Platform -- to complete the gold medal sweep. Wang Xin, who won gold in the Synchronized Platform event with Chen, won bronze with 429.90 points.

Fifteen-year-old Chen fell behind the Canadian diving veteran by 1.65 points after four dives -- the first time in the Olympics thus far that a Chinese diver did not hold the lead going into the final dive. After Heymans scored a strong 88.00 on her fifth dive, the pressure shifted to Chen, who had not scored above 90 in the final round. When she calmly executed her near perfect final dive, which carried a degree of difficulty of 3.4, the Water Cube erupted in applause.

Three-time Olympian Heymans won her third Olympic medal. She won silver in Sydney and bronze in Athens in the Synchronized 10m Platform. Her fourth dive was awarded a top-ranked 95.20 points, pushing her ahead of Chen with one dive remaining.

Paola Espinosa, Olympic flag bearer for Mexico, finished in second place in the semifinal but struggled in the final, scoring a 68.00 in her third dive to fall out of medal contention.

Final standings

1.China -- Chen Ruolin, 447.70 points

2 Canada -- Emilie Heymans, 437.05

3 China --Wang Xin, 429.90

4 Mexico -- Paola Espinosa, 380.95

5 Mexico -- Tatiana Ortiz, 343.60

6 Australia -- Melissa Wu, 338.15

7 Canada -- Marie-Eve Marleau, 332.10

8 Great Britain -- Tonia Couch, 328.70

9 US -- Laura Wilkinson, 311.80

10 Great Britain -- Stacie Powell, 303.50

11 Japan -- Nakagawa Mai, 296.30

12 Sweden -- Elina Eggers, 285.85