China's Qiu Bo poses with his gold medal after winning the men's 10m platform final at the Aquatics World Championships in Kazan, Russia, Aug. 2, 2015. (Photo : REUTERS)
Qui Bo matched diving great Greg Louganis’s feat of three world titles on Sunday, as China swept 10 medals to dominate the diving category at the Aquatics World Championships.
But with 13 titles on the line this year due to an extended program, China failed to follow up their clean sweep of 10 medals at the 2011 Championships in Shanghai.
Qiu won the 10th and final gold medal at the 10m platform, ahead of American David Boudia, who finished second for the third world championships in a row.
The deciding moment was in the third round, when Qui overtook Boudia with his best dive at the competition--107.30 points with a 3.7 degree of difficulty--to equal Louganis's three consecutive wins for the United States between 1978 and 1986.
Sichuan-born Qiu finished with 587.00 points, while Olympic medalist Boudia took silver with 560.20, and British Tom Daley bagged bronze.
"This victory means a lot to me," the 22-year-old Qiu told the media. "I made almost no mistakes but I will try to improve. I hope that I will perform better at the [2016 Summer] Olympics."
The diving program was also notable for Kim Kuk-hyang, winning North Korea's first Aquatics World Championships title.
The 16-year-old took the top place in the women's individual 10m platform final, with China's Ren Qian, 14, finishing second.
China's Quin Kai became the first male diver to win five gold medals in a world championship event, after claiming the 3m synchronized springboard with partner Cao Yuan.
A mixed team event was also featured for the first time during the championships.
The format had one male and one female diver performing individually on both the 3m springboard and 10m platform events. Daley and partner Rebecca Gallantree took gold.
It was the first of four medals for U.K., who finished behind China's record of 15 medals.
