Chinese divers sweep three more golds, reaching century mark at FINA worlds
Li Yajie bagged the 101st in women's 1m springboard, followed by Lin Shan and Zhu Zifeng securing the 102nd in the mixed 3m synchronized final later.
Powerhouse China has won 95 of the available 151 gold medals in diving in the tournament's history before coming to Budapest, which accounts for 63% of the total. Russia (excluding the Soviet Union) and the United States follow on 13 world titles each in the sport.
China collected at least one gold medal in diving in each of the last 14 world championships and won 12 of the 13 titles at the last edition of the tournament in 2019.
In the women's 1m springboard final, the 19-year-old Li came back from a poor third dive, after which she ranked second with 7.30 points behind Canada's Mia Vallee, to deliver two flawless dives in the fourth and fifth rounds to grab the gold with 300.85 points.
"I was a little nervous in the preliminary this morning since it was my first time at world championships," Li said.
"But some experienced teammates and coaches helped me a lot as they taught me how to get relaxed in the match," she added, mentioning that multiple Olympic champion Shi Tingmao has talked with her a lot about how to compete in the worlds.
Li's victory also marked a record-extending seventh world title for China in this event.
Sarah Bacon of the US beat Vallee with the last dive to win a back-to-back worlds silver medal in the event with 276.65, only 0.05 ahead of the Canadian. The 25-year-old American finished with the same medal three years ago in Gwangju, South Korea, behind another Chinese diver Chen Yiwen.
