Yang Jian of Team China competes in the men's 10-meter platform final on July 3, 2022 in Budapest, Hungary. Photo: VCG

 
As the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, closed on Sunday, China's national diving team swept all 13 gold medals, ranking first on the diving medal table.

Sunday saw China's 28-year-old diver Yang Jian claim the championship title at the men's 10-meter platform after a roller-coaster competition. Yang performed poorly in his second and third dives, falling to seventh after three rounds, yet after his excellent sixth and final dive he hit 515.55 points to bag the title. 

Yang was followed by Japanese diver Rikuto Tamai who took the silver. And another Chinese diver, Yang Hao, won bronze.

"It has been almost one year since we last competed in international competitions … I could not find the rhythm at the beginning. But I made adjustments during the last couple of dives," Yang Jian said in the interview with the Xinhua News Agency on Sunday.

"The Japanese diver performed very well, for most time of the final, I was the one trying to catch up with them," said the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games silver winner.

The big win at the World Championships also received praise from Chinese netizens on Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo.

"This is the dream team! We have witnessed a perfect cooperation among all the members in the national team," one netizen said.

China's Yang Jian celebrates taking gold in the men's 10m platform diving finals at the Duna Arena in Budapest on July 3, 2022. Photo: VCG

In addition to Yang Jian, the diving lovers' attention was also attracted by another sensational figure, Quan ­Hongchan, China's teen diving star.

Quan became the focus among Chinese audience after her win in 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games at the age of 14 with her excellent impeccable performance in the summer of 2021, being held up by growing number of sports fans and praised as a rising star in China. 

Now this young Olympic champion, together with her teammate Bai ­Yuming, won another championship in the mixed 3-meter and 10-meter competition on Wednesday, claiming the 100th gold at the World Championships for the Chinese swimming team.

From the first FINA World Championships held in 1973, and China's first participation in the championships in 1982, it took the country four years to win a gold medal when then 15-year-old diver Gao Min claimed first place in ­Madrid, Spain. She also broke the ­highest score in the history for the women's springboard at that time.

"At that time, China's swimming team was undergoing a transformation in elevating to a whole new level of diving and swimming skills. [I remembered that] we've innovated in many new skills, such as finding out the way of how to minimize the splash during the diving competition to the extreme. These series of innovations have pushed us forward in many worldwide competitions," recalled Gao in an earlier interview.

Now among the 18 members of the Chinese diving team, only three were born in 1900s and the rest of the athletes were born in 2000s. The team now is led by a new generation including Quan and 15-year-old Bai, to carry on Chinese diving's "dream team."