China wins 3rd Olympic synchro diving medal; US gets silver

TOKYO (AP) — China led all the way in winning men’s the 3-meter synchronized springboard on Wednesday, giving the diving powerhouse its third gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics.

Wang Zongyuan and Xie Siyi finished with 467.82 points in their Olympic debuts.

Andrew Capobianco and Michael Hixon of the United States earned silver with 444.36 points. It’s the same color medal that Hixon won five years ago in Rio de Janeiro with a different partner.

Patrick Hausding and Lars Rudiger of Germany rallied from sixth to take bronze with 404.73 points. It was Hausding’s third Olympic medal, having won silver in 10-meter synchro in 2008 and bronze in individual springboard in 2016.

China earlier won gold in women’s 10-meter synchro and women’s 3-meter synchro. The Chinese took silver in men’s 10-meter synchro.

The Chinese and the Americans did the same dive in the last round. The forward 4 1/2 somersaults tuck carries a 3.8 degree of difficulty, the second-toughest dive performed by any of the teams. Wang and Xie earned 99.18 points, while Capobianco and Hixon received 88.92.

The Chinese built an early lead after earning a perfect mark of 10 for synchronization on their first dive and two 10s for synchronization on their second dive.

Evgenii Kuznetsov and Nikita Shleikher of the ROC were in medal contention when they failed on their last dive. Shleikher appeared to lose his way as he took off and hit the water on his stomach. As a result, they received zero points and finished last among eight teams.

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