Chinese Duo Wins Synchronized Diving Gold

Defending Gold Medalists, Quo Jingjing and Wu Minxia of China led throughout the 3m springboard synchronized diving event on Sunday, capturing the Gold Medal with a score of 343.50. The Silver Medal went to Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova of Russia and the Bronze Medal was awarded to Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer of Germany. Americans Kelci Bryant and Ariel Rittenhouse finished in fourth place.

This was the first diving medal awarded at the Beijing Games, where the Chinese team is expected to dominate. Synchronized diving, where two divers perform identical or mirrored routines alongside one another, is a relatively new Olympic sport. It debuted at the 2000 Games in Sydney.