Olympics-Diving-Xie keeps China on course for clean sweep with springboard gold defence

By Kane Wu

PARIS (Reuters) -China's Xie Siyi successfully defended his gold medal in the three-metre springboard diving at the Paris Olympics on Thursday after taking two years out of the sport since he claimed top honours in Tokyo.

Teammate Wang Zongyuan took silver while Mexico's Osmar Olvera got the bronze medal.

Xie, 28, finished on 543.60 points after delivering six near-perfect dives in Paris' most competitive diving event yet, keeping alive China's bid for a clean sweep of diving golds at the Games, with two more events to come.

"I feel really thrilled," Xie told reporters after the victory ceremony. "I rested for nearly two years since Tokyo and only came back last year. It has been really challenging for me."

Wang, 22, who has reigned in the event in all major global competitions in the last couple years as Xie was on the sidelines, lost points on a less than satisfactory fifth dive, but delivered the highest points in the final with 102.60 points in his last dive to take second place.

"Indeed I made a mistake. It was more my problem not pressure from the competitors," Wang, who secured 530.20 points, said after also repeating his result from Tokyo in 2021.

"I was thinking too much about how to perform my best that I became uptight in fifth dive," Wang said, "When I knew the gap (between me and Xie) before the last dive, my mind was completely relaxed. I never felt so calm."

"Of course it's a shame but this is the charm of competitive sports. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I'll just have to work harder to be better in the next four years," he added.

Xie and Wang are the only divers who managed to achieve over 100 points in a single dive on Thursday. Xie scored 100.70 points in his last dive to secure his top spot.

Olvera, 20, who won silver in the synchronised event, wowed the spectators with smooth execution and perfect entries in his last two dives, but he was not able to close the gap after a problematic third dive.

Still, the Mexican received the loudest cheers from the crowd, having emerged as China's biggest challenger in his second Olympics and garnering a total of 500.40 points.

"I achieved my goal," Olvera said. "I knew if I wanted to win a medal I needed to achieve 500 points and I've managed to do so."

"I'm very happy," he said.

(Reporting by Kane Wu; Editing by Clare Fallon and Alison Williams)