China's rookie Xie Siyi staged a come-from-behind performance and celebrated an unexpected victory in the men's 1m springboard final at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Kazan on Monday.
Chinese divers wrapped up all four gold medals on offer so far at the Kazan worlds.
Xie placed second after first three rounds, 4.35 points behind the front-runner Jahir Ocampo Marroquin of Mexico. Starting from his fourth dive 5152B, Xie turned the table and snatched the top spot until the last dive, winning in 485.50.
Illya Kvasha of Ukraine took the silver in 449.05 and Mike Hixon of the United States third in 428.30. The pace setter Jahir Ocampo Marroquin of Mexico had to concede to a fourth place due to a big flaw in his fifth dive.
Xie, 19, admitted he was nervous in the preliminary but relaxed in the final.
"I did not expect to win the gold. It is my first World Championships, I thought a medal should be good because I has just turned to the springboard for about six months. I was very nervous during the preliminary and did not perform my best. Today I just showed my normal training form and felt more relaxed than in the preliminary," Xie said.
As a former platform diver, Xie was good at dives of high degree of difficulty, such as 109C and 407C. "I broke my right ankle in early 2014. I had to change to springboard due to the injury at the beginning of this year. So I am not as stable and confident on the springboard," Xie said.
Xie will next compete in the mixed team event together with Olympic champion Chen Ruolin. "The title gives me a lot of confidence in the mixed team event. I will try my best."
Defending champions Chen Ruolin/Liu Huixia will try to retain their title in the women's 10m platform synchro in the evening.
