After six years, Beijing Olympic champion Lin Yue of China found his peak form back when he claimed the men's 10m synchronized platform title together with new partner Chen Aisen at the FINA World Swimming Championships on Sunday.
The Chinese duo led from the start and never looked back in six dives, especially in their last dive 5255B with a day-high 100.44 points. Chen/Lin collected a total of 495.72.
The Mexican pair Garcia Navarro/Sanchez Sanchez enjoyed their last dive 515B as highest degree of difficulty among all the finalists, taking the silver medals in 448.89, beating Roman Izmailov/Victor Minibaev of Russia into third in 441.33. Defending champion Sascha Klein/Patrick Hausding of Germany came to sixth place in 431.34.
Lin, who competed his last World Championships in Rome 2009, said that the gold medal brought him a lot of good memory.
"I am very excited about the champion because it was my first time in six years to come back on the top of the podium! The feeling is just like what I had in Rome when I was on the top of the world. It is a fresh and familiar feeling," Lin said.
Lin once slumped down since 2009 and did not qualify for the London Olympic Games during the Chinese domestic trails. "Without the encouragement and support from my coach and team manager, I could not continue my diving career. I thought I was reborn after that disappointed low ebb," said the 24-year-old Lin.
"To be honest, Chen dove better than me today as I started very slow. Our factor of victory is the synchronization," Lin said.
Comparing with emotional veteran Lin, Chen was happy with his first world title. "I could not believe that I am a world champion now. All the efforts are paid off today. We performed much better in the final than the morning preliminary. I did not have any pressure at all because Lin is more experienced and helps me a lot," Chen said.
China's Shi Tingmao finished atop in the women's 1m springboard heats, followed by Tania Cagnotto of Italy and He Zi from China.
Men's 1m springboard final and women's 10m synchro platform final will be held on July 27.
In the duet technical final, powerhouse Russia dominated the event with 95.4672, ahead of China's Huang Xuechen/Sun Wenyan 93.3279. Japan's Inui Yukiko/Mitsui Risako came to third in 92.0079.
"I think I performed perfectly today," said a confident Huang. "The Russians have always been our rivals, and actually, they are rivals of all the synchronized swimming players. We hope we can beat them one day."
Christina Jones/Bill May of the United States denied the Russia's dominance in the newly-introduced mixed duet technical, winning the title in 88.5108, 0,2122 points higher than the hosts Darina Valitova/Aleksandr Maltsev. Manila Flamini/Giorgio Minisini of Italy took the bronze in 86.3640. A total of six pairs competed in this event.
China finished second behind Russia in the free combination preliminary. In the first group match in the women's water polo, China edged Hungary 9-8 (4-1, 1-4, 1-2, 3-1).
In the women's water polo group match, China edged Hungary 9-8 (4-1, 1-4, 1-2, 3-1).
