Debutant Zhang Xinhua came from nowhere to beat world No. 1 and teammate Luo Yutong to win China the first diving gold in the men's 1m springboard on Thursday at the Bangkok Universiade.
This is also the first gold in the pool for China at the Universiade as the swimming team only won three silver and three bronze medals.
Leading by one-two finish in the preliminary round, Zhang and Luo had poor starts to find themselves on the 4th and 8th places after three turns in the final.
"I felt really nervous because this is my first time to compete in the 1m springboard in any of national or international competitions," Zhang said.
Luo, winner of the world championships in March, said that he would not find any excuse from the waist injury.
"I'm nursing the waist injury but it's not the reason for my disappointing start in the final. I had only two good jumps (4th and 5th) throughout the competition," Luo said.
Luo scored 81.60 and the game-high 86.70 points in the following two rounds to retake the second place, while Zhang gathered up for a pair of almost-perfect jumps to top the board.
The Chinese pair held on for the gold and silver medals by 437. 40 and 424.85 points respectively, while Ukraine's Yuriy Shlyakhov finished third with 420.00 points.
Source: Xinhua
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