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RSSChina Begins Gold Hunt at Beijing Olympics
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BEIJING (AP) _ Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia of China grabbed the the first diving gold medal of the Beijing Games on Sunday. Both with their magnificient performance gave an opening to the host country’s bid to sweep eight golds medals. Guo and Wu, the current world champions, won the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard title Sunday. China has a history of producing maximum Olympic medals in swimmimng.
The Chinese win came just minutes after American star Michael Phelps got going on his pursuit of eight Olympic swimming gold medals after winning the 400-meter individual medley. Like Phelps, the Chinese are also in attempts to sweep the gold medals for the first time since the Olympics expanded to eight diving events.
Guo and Wu defended the 3-meter synchro title they owned four years ago in Athens, finishing with 343.50 points. They led through all five rounds of the competition, and were cheered wildly by their red flag-waving countrymen.
After completing their final dive, a backward 2 1/2 somersault, Guo and Wu climbed out of the pool and Guo gave herself a fist bump to the heart before the duo took their traditional bows. Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova of Russia won silver with 323.61.
Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer of Germany won the bronze with 318.90. Americans Kelci Bryant and Ariel Rittenhouse missed a medal by 4.5 points,by finishing fourth with 314.40.
The United States hasn’t been successful yet in owning a diving medal since 2000, having been shut out in Athens. Bryant and Rittenhouse were tied for first after the opening round and tied for second through the next two rounds before dropping to third.
U.S. fans booed when the duo’s marks for execution ranging from 6.0 to 7.5 were posted after their fourth dive. Bryant and Rittenhouse were tied with the Germans going into the fifth and final dive, but the Germans earned the third-highest score of the competition, 76.50, to take the bronze.
Pakhalina came back to the podium targetting for her third Olympics, though, this time with a different partner. The Russian won gold in the event at Sydney and silver in Athens in partnership with Vera Ilyna.Fischer and Kotzian stood second to Guo and Wu at last year’s world championships. Guo and Wu will now face against each other later in the individual 3-meter competition. Guo, now 26, plans to retire after the Olympics.She is a huge star in China. Her relationship with a wealthy Hong Kong businessman is hot topic for the gossip mongers.
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