Qiu Bo clinched China's breathtaking clean sweep of the world championships diving events Sunday as the hosts put the final seal on a decade of dominance. Qiu's last 10m platform dive - a mesmerising, backwards 2.5 somersault with 2.5 twist, in the pike position - was the cue for joyful celebrations at Crescent Lagoon, where China collected all 10 titles.
Qiu epitomised China's diving mastery as he collected 585.45 points in the final, more than 40 ahead of American David Boudia with Germany's Sascha Klein taking bronze.
But there was to be no fairytale for British defending champion Tom Daley, 17, who was competing despite the death of his father from cancer in May and finished fifth. "There is a big gap between me and Qiu Bo," Daley admitted. "The Chinese are fantastic. But you can see that everything can happen, and you can see the Chinese made mistakes in today's competition."
It was one of only two individual events in which China did not seal both gold and silver, underscoring the wide margin they enjoy over their closest rivals. And Shanghai, where China are hosting their first world aquatics championships, was a fitting venue for the comprehensive display, which has been watched this week by basketball icon Yao Ming.
China have long threatened the elusive clean sweep after claiming seven out of eight at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and taking seven of 10 at the Rome world championships a year later.
But at Crescent Lagoon the battle has been for second and third place with competitors celebrating wildly when they seal a silver or bronze medal, knowing gold is beyond reach. China's display came despite January's retirement of "diving queen" Guo Jingjing, whose partner Wu Minxia stepped up to claim her first individual world title, as well as the 3m synchro with new team-mate He Zi.
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