China wins women's 10M synchro diving; US earns silver

TOKYO (AP) — China won another gold medal in Olympic diving.

Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi won the women’s 10-meter synchronized platform on Tuesday, giving the diving powerhouse its second gold of the Tokyo Games.

Chen and Zhang totaled 363.78 points over five rounds. They received two perfect 10s for execution on their second dive.

Jessica Parratto and Delaney Schnell of the U.S. took silver in just their second competition as a pair. They totaled 310.80.

Schnell was the bronze medalist in individual platform at the world championships in 2019. Parratto was seventh in the same event five years ago in Rio.

Gabriela Agundez Garcia and Alejandra Orozco Loza of Mexico earned bronze at 299.70.

China was comfortably in first place going into the final round.

The second-place Americans led Japan by a scant 2.1 points, with Mexico another 1.32 points behind in fourth.

China, the U.S., Mexico and Japan all did the same dive in the last round, a back 2 1/2 somersaults 1 1/2 twists pike carrying a 3.2 degree of difficulty. Only Canada performed a more difficult dive during the competition.

The Chinese earned 84.48 points, barely creating splashes as they knifed into the water. The Americans scored 78.72, earning marks from 8.0 to 8.5 for synchronization. The Mexicans scored 71.04, while Japan fell out of medal contention by scoring 61.44.

Chen and Zhang were making their Olympic debuts, but already have a winning history. Chen, who is 15, won the individual 10-meter platform title at the world championships in 2019, when she was 13. Zhang, who is 17, won the platform synchro title at the world meet two years ago.

China won its first gold in Tokyo in women’s 3-meter synchro springboard and earned silver in men’s 10-meter platform synchro.

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