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Tian deposes Sautin for China's fifth Olympic diving crown
= = SYDNEY, Sept 30 (AFP) - Tian Liang won the battle for the men's Olympic 10m platform Saturday giving China their fifth diving gold of the Sydney Games on the final day of competition here. The final was a duel between Tian and team-mate Hu Jia, a 17-year-old drafted in as a last-minute replacement for an injured team member, who won China's fifth silver. The Chinese duo were in a class of their own juggling the lead back and forth scoring 13 perfect 10s between them to easily depose of reigning Olympic and world champion Dmitry Sautin of Russia. "Winning an Olympic gold is every athlete's dream," said 21-year-old Tian, fourth in the 1996 Atlanta Games. Tian, ended on 724.53 points, with Hu on 713.55, and Sautin took bronze with 679.26. Fifteen year-old Commonwealth champion Alexandre Despatie of Canada was fourth on 652.35, followed by Japan's Ken Terauchi on 636.90. "Judging by the quality of the dives I'm not really certain that I could have won. It would have been a waste of my time to truly compete with these two," admitted Sautin afterwards. The 26-year-old, who has been beset by injuries but nevertheless competed in four events and won four medals at these Games, admitted that perhaps he had overstretched his capacities. He partnered Igor Lukashin for gold in the synchronised platform, where they pushed Tian and Hu into second, and paired with Alexandre Dobroskok for silver in the synchronised springboard, and he won bronze in the individual springboard. "These previous performances together took up a lot of my energy. I must just be exhausted. Maybe I should have used a different strategy and saved up my energy for tonight's jumps," said Sautin. "You can control things mentally, but you can't really control your muscles," added the three-time Olympian. And he needed all his energy against the Chinese divers who were the only competitors to achieve a string of perfect 10s. "We start to train for the Olympics from the first day we start to dive," said Tian, who left home and joined the national team at the age of 11. Hu said that he started diving at the age of five. Hu was ahead going into the finals after his four semi-final dives, but Tian lead after the first of Saturday's six more complex high scoring dives. On the second dive, Hu regained the lead and extended it in his third back three-and-a-half turn somersault tuck which earned him six perfect 10s. But he faulted on his fourth dive, allowing world silver-medallist Tian to go in front again with his back three-and-a-half turn somersault earning one perfect 10 for 101.52 points - 49.68 more than Hu. "At first I was lagging behind by a large margin and my coach told me to relax and do my best. On the fourth dive I just wanted to focus and bring out my level of performance," said Tian. Two-time world champion Sautin was always chasing the Chinese, but was the only diver capable of challenging them and earned one perfect 10 to share the highest score for the fifth dive with Hu. "I've been at three Olympics and each time I see the Chinese divers there's always a certain consistency to their performances," said Sautin. "I find it more and more difficult to compete against them. Their two medals are not by accident. It's because of excellent preparation." China becomes the first country to win more than four gold at one Games, although the programme in Sydney has been extended by the addition of four synchronised diving events. The United States, previously the only nation to win four golds at a single games, have had their worst diving performance in 88 years, achieving just one medal when Laura Wilkinson won gold over China's Li Na in the women's 10m platform. Americans Mark Ruiz placed sixth on 625.92, and David Pichler ninth on 616.17 in Saturday's platform final. "We're very satisfied," said Chinese coach Zhang Ting. "To get so many golds in an Olympics is quite hard." This has been China's most successful Olympic after a slow start to their diving campaign when they failed to achieve a title in the opening three events. But inspired by veteran Xiong Ni's defence of his men's springboard title Tuesday in a tight battle with Sautin, the Chinese have won every gold since. Thursday was their most successful day when Fu Mingxia defended her 3m springboard title for a record-equalling fourth Olympic gold. It capped a day which saw four-time Olympian Xiong, who like Fu came out of retirement to help the team, achieve a second gold in the synchronised springboard with partner Xiao Hailiang.
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