| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 19, 2001 |
Olympic Champion Tian Glistens on Platform at National Games |
 Sydney Olympic diving champion Tian Liang sustained his honor to clinch the men's 10-meter platform title at China's 9th National Games Sunday in Shantou.
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Sydney Olympic diving champion Tian Liang sustained his honor to clinch the men's 10-meter platform title at China's 9th National Games Sunday in Shantou.
Tian, who claimed two golds from platform events at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, scored a total of 727.47 points, leading the runner-up Hu Jia of Guangdong by 51.69 points. Hu was Tian's synchronized partner at the Sydney Olympics. Huang Qiang, the Sydney World Cup champion in 2000, got the bronze medal with a total of 687.48 points.
The 21-year-old Tian was representing Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, who finished second in the semi-finals. But he kicked off to a perfect start in the six-dive final and his outstanding performance earned him a successive 9 or 10 marks from the judges throughout the final. His fourth dive, a reverse three and a half somersaults dive with the degree of difficulty 3.6, won the day- high score of 103.68 points.
"I don't think my performance was perfect tonight," said Tian after the competition. "Actually I always believed my dive had room to improve and I tried to ameliorate in each jump."
Tian's triumph was so convincing that his rivals could not help admiring him. The silver medalist Hu told Xinhua, "Tian is a great diver. I have to confess that Tian is still better than me, especially his ability to control himself in fierce competitions. What I need is more time. I believe given more time, I will catch up with him in some day."
Zhou Jihong, head of the national diving team, said she was glad to see some young divers give excellent performance at the games.
"Some young divers had demonstrated their great potentials and some of their maneuvers are of top world level," she said. However, Zhou added, they failed to be steady in their performance and made some mistakes.
"They are still too young. I believe more training will lead them to maturity," she said.
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