LONDON (AP) — Wu Minxia and He Zi of China won the first diving gold medal of the London Olympics on Sunday, putting the country on a path toward a possible sweep of the eight medals.
Wu and He led throughout the five-dive round and totaled 346.20 points.
China won seven of eight golds as the host country four years ago in Beijing and it swept the golds at last year’s world championships in Shanghai.
Wu earned her fifth Olympic medal, moving her closer to tying retired countrywoman Guo Jingjing’s record of six medals. Wu has three golds, one silver and one bronze.
Abby Johnston and Kelci Bryant of the U.S. took the silver with 321.90, ending the country’s diving medal drought that extended to the 2000 Sydney Games. Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel earned the bronze with 316.80 for Canada’s first medal of the games.
The American duo was third after the first round, then moved up to second and stayed there despite a 1.5-point lead over Canada after the fourth round.
Heymans claimed her fourth career Olympic medal, making her the first female diver to earn a medal at four consecutive games. She took silver on individual 10-meter in Beijing, and bronze in syncho platform in 2004 and silver in the same event in Sydney, the first year synchro diving was added to the Olympic program.
Unlike the individual events, synchro diving goes directly to the final at the Olympics, with no preliminaries or semifinals.
