Gold medalist Shi Tingmao (L) and silver medalist Wang Han of China pose for photos after the women's 3m springboard final of diving event at FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, on July 19, 2019. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei)
GWANGJU, South Korea, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese divers Shi Tingmao and Wang Han added a gold and a silver medals for team China with stable, world-class performances at the 18th FINA World Championships here on Friday.
Shi was in the lead in all her five attempts to take gold in the women's 3m springboard. Her teammate Wang stayed on second position all the way to claim silver in 372.85 points, 13.15 behind the gold medalist.
Shi and Wang displayed the top-class, unwavering dives, beating Maddison Keeney of Australia who secured bronze with 367.05.
With the additional medals from the diving "dream team," China topped the medal table with 12 golds, seven silvers and one bronze. Russia came next with seven gold and four silver medals, and Germany placed third at 2-1-2.
In the men's 10m platform semifinals, China's Yang Jian and Yang Hao recorded a 1-2 finish to take a shot at another gold and silver in the final scheduled for Saturday.
Russia maintained dominance in artistic swimming, winning its seventh artistic swimming gold in the women's team free final. Chinese swimmers secured silver, 1.9667 points short of frontrunners Russia, who scored 98.0000.
Russia's Mayya Gurbanberdieva and Aleksandr Maltsev qualified for finals in the first position in the mixed duet free artistic swimming. The Italian and Japanese pairs came second and third respectively.
In the 25km open water swimming, France's Axel Reymond won the men's race while Brazil's Ana Marcela Cunha took gold medal in the women's counterpart.
Reymond finished in four hours, 51 minutes and 6.20 seconds in the men's race, just 0.3 seconds faster than Russia's Kirill Belyaev who won silver. Alessio Occhipinti of Italy came third in 4:51:09.50.
The French swimmer stayed in the top-five lead most of the race to conserve his energy for a final spurt 2km ahead of the touchpad.
"The last 400 meters was very, very tough and it was the hardest finish of my life... I don't even know how I did it. I guessed that I touched before him and it's magic," said Reymond.
Cunha claimed her second gold of these championships in the 25km race after winning gold in the 5km open water event. She has been dominant in the 25km race, capturing three 25km gold medals in 2011 from Shanghai, in 2015 from Kazan and in 2017 from Budapest.
In the third and final group matches for men's water polo, Hungary was the first to qualify for quarterfinals, winning its third consecutive match in Group C by pounding South Africa 23-5. Spain secured second position with a 23-3 win over New Zealand.
Italy had a narrow 8-7 victory over Germany as the Italian team came from behind in the last quarter, taking control of Group D. Japan beat Brazil 11-9 with a last-minute goal, after being trailed by a narrower margin.
In Group A, Serbia raced to the quarterfinals with an easy 9-3 victory over Greece. Montenegro trounced the host team South Korea 24-6, sealing second spot.
Croatia swept Kazakhstan 21-5, qualifying for the quarterfinals. The United States edged out Australia 12-11, taking second spot.
