Diving Queen Fu Mingxia Aims for 4th Olympic GoldAlthough she lost to her domestic rival Guo Jingjing twice in their three encounters in the national competitions, Fu Mingxia are prepared for her fourth Olympic gold medal in Sydney.Fu, suffering a shaky second dive, was upset by Guo in the women's three-meter springboard final at the Chinese national championships Wednesday night. "I did not perform well. I lost to myself," said the diminutive diver. "But my form is better than last year when I first returned to competition. I will bid for anther Olympic gold medal, in individual or synchronized event." Platform and springboard golds in Atlanta Games made her the first woman in 36 years to win both Olympic events. She also won the platform at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Compared with Guo's 0.2 point higher difficulty routines in five attempts, Fu said her routines are the same as she had performed at the Atlanta Olympics. "I have no plan to improve my difficulty degree and learn other new routines," she said. Fu, who won her first world title at 12, quit the sport shortly after Atlanta because she was "tired mentally". Now 22, she is studying economics at China's prestigious Qinghua University and returned to the national team last month. Fu will also team up with Guo for the synchronized springboard in Sydney. "It is hard to win the synchro in Sydney because Russian du Irina Lashko and Yulia Pakhalina are very competitive. Guo and I just trained together for one month and we need to improve our stability," she said. |
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