Chinese divers Shi Tingmao (R) and Wu Minxia pose with their gold medal during the podium ceremony in Kazan yesterday.

AFP/Kazan

China captured the world 3m women’s synchronised diving gold for the eighth successive time yesterday thanks to triple Olympic champion Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao.  They scored 351.30 points with Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware claiming silver with 319.47 and bronze going to Australia’s Samantha Mills and Esther Qin on 304.20.
China also celebrated another gold on the first full day of the championships which run until August 9. Fellow Chinese divers Si Yajie and Tai Xiaohu, both just 17, won the mixed synchro 10-metre title with a points total of 350.88.
Canadians Meaghan Benfeito and Vincent Riendeau took silver with 309.66 points and the bronze went to Dominic Bedgood and Melissa Wu of Australia with 308.22 points.
“We just tried to perform our normal training form, and did not think about the other things. To keep concentration and a cool head is very important. We were competing against ourselves,” said 29-year-old Wu.  
“Since I am getting older and slower in recovery, I have to train efficiently and try to avoid more injuries.  “Synchro springboard is the only event in which I am competing in Kazan. It is always difficult to win the gold.”
In synchronised swimming, Russia’s Svetlana Romashina defended her technical solo title with 95.2680 points, securing her seventh world medal.
Spain’s Ona Carbonell took silver with 93.1284 while bronze went to China’s Sun Wenyan with 91.5479.  South African Chad Ho won the men’s open water 5-kilometre gold in a time of 55 minutes 17.6 seconds in a thrilling photo finish ahead of Germany’s Rob Muffels.  Matteo Furlan of Italy won the bronze medal in 55mins 20secs.
It was the first time that a South African swimmer had won gold in the open water events at the world championships.
Earlier, Haley Anderson of the United States won the women’s five kilometre gold.
The Olympic silver medallist over 10 kilometres timed 58 minutes 48.4 seconds to edge Greece’s Kalliopi Araouzou into second place with a time of 58mins 49.8secs.