SHANGHAI, May 23 (Xinhuanet) -- A special competition format added spice to the competition on the last day of the invitational Shanghai Champions Diving Tour here Sunday.
"It is fun, very interesting," said platform world champion Alexandre Despatie, who finished second in the men's platform, which was his only medal here.
Divers were put on more pressure when competing in the four events -- men's platform individual and synchronized and the two women's 3m springboard -- as they face elimination in each round.
Divers are asked to finish the dives, six for men and five for women, by the category of dive groups -- the forward, back, reverse, inward, twisting and armstand.
Divers with the lowest scores each round are dropped and the rest advance until three are left. The three divers will conduct one dive each with no limited degree of difficulty and their positions will be decided in this round.
"I am afraid that this is the first international event that adopted this kind of format," said Chinese Yang Jinghui winner of the men's platform event here, who struck 100.44 points with a dive code-named 209 B to edge Despatie by 0.12 point.
"It was so exciting and I had to find my rhythm right from the beginning of the competition and keep focused.. You might be kicked out any time if you lose concentration," said the World Cupplatform synchronized champion.
Robert Newbery of Australia scored 79.80 points in his last dive to finish third despite his lead in previous rounds but he said he had a good time in the competition.
"It was different from other tournaments and I felt relaxed. The competition was not boring any more this way," said the platform synchronized world champion from last year's championships in Barcelona.
World champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia were in a class of their own in the women's three-meter springboard event as they earned 81.90 for a dive with clean back somersaults.
"We never competed this way before. It was different, but that's all," said Guo. Enditem | 
Breaking
News