Champion He leads springboard field into final

0
118

Defending champion He Chong goes into the final of the men’s 3m springboard as the Olympic gold medal favourite after topping the semi-final qualifiers on Tuesday. He trailed after four of the six rounds but came home strongly to finish with 510.15 points, 4.55 clear of Russian Ilya Zakharov (505.60) and 9.80 ahead of Chinese teammate Qin Kai (500.35) to head the 12-man field into Tuesday night’s final.
Two-time world champion He took control with a score of 91.80 for an inward three and a half somersault with tuck in the third round and 91.20 for a forward four and a half somersault on his fourth dive.
China have already won the opening five diving events as they target an unprecedented clean sweep of all eight gold medals in London after finishing with seven of the eight golds in Beijing four years ago.
“I think my performance is just so-so,” He said. “I still have room to improve for the final because I can do much better in training, I especially hope I can have less splash.
“I just followed the routine which my coach told me to do. I never changed it. There’s no real competition between the athletes so I have no strategy, I just want to do my best.” Zakharov, who finished runner-up behind He at last year’s Shanghai world championships, zoomed to second overall with a spectacular forward four and a half somersault which scored a competition high 100.70.