Chinese divers jump to finals at Universiade

NAPLES, Italy - The Chinese divers Li Ping'an and Liu Chengming won the first and second place respectively in the preliminaries of men's 1m springboard at Mostra d'Oltremare, Napoli 2019 Universiade on Tuesday and jumped over the semis to the final.

Li and Liu, both aged 21, show great talent during the competition. Their diving difficulties are all above 3.0 in six rounds. Li finished 361.70 on the top, followed by Liu with 357.25, more than 20 points' lead over the third.

According to the protocol on the 1m springboard, the first two divers don't need to take part in the semifinal and jump directly into the final on Thursday.

Cheng Jingjing, coach of the Chinese diving team, told Xinhua that some of the divers were inexperienced in outdoor competition. "The sunshine might have impact on them."

"This is exactly the plan we have," added Cheng, "to dive with more difficulties and of course with more risks as well. We want to go directly to the final by saving our energy."

Jiao Jingjing and Wu Jiao advanced to the women's 10m platform final after ranking 7th and 12th respectively in the semifinal.

In the women's water polo preliminary, China lost to Australia 15-4. Pan Shenghua, head coach of the Chinese team, believed the biggest problem is the physical condition. "We could hold the game in the first quarter and the second but lost too many points when the energy ran out in the third and the fourth quarter."