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2021 National Games of China
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Quan Hongchan of China on her way winning the 10m platform diving final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Photo: EPA

Tokyo 2020 star Quan Hongchan beats three other Olympic diving champions for China National Games gold

  • Diving gold medal-winner at Summer Games pips Chen Yuxi again in Xian with Zhang Jiaqi and Ren Qian also in action
  • The 14-year-old comes from behind to add individual gold to winning women’s team event with Guangdong earlier in National Games

Olympic champion diver Quan Hongchan has added another gold medal at the China National Games to her CV after winning the individual 10-metre platform in Xian.

The 14-year-old has now won two golds at the 14th National Games after helping Guangdong province to win the women’s team event last week.

This medal was arguably the most difficult of her young career as the field included three other Olympic champions – Ren Qian, Chen Yuxi and Zhang Jiaqi.

Chen, the 2019 world champion, and Zhang, the 2018 World Cup winner, won the Tokyo 2020 gold medal in the 10m synchro.

Quan Hongchan of China reacts with her coach after a dive at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Photo: Reuters

Chen finished second to Quan in the Tokyo Aquatic Centre in the women’s 10m platform final and that was the case again in Xian but only after the young Guangdong diver came from behind.

Ren Qian, the 2016 Rio Olympics 10m platform gold medallist, also challenged Quan. All four divers were level after the first dive before Chen started to pull away.

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Tokyo Olympics champion Quan Hongchan wins diving gold at China's National Games

Tokyo Olympics champion Quan Hongchan wins diving gold at China's National Games

In the end, Chen won silver for Shanghai and Ren won bronze for Sichuan with Quan taking gold on 419.25 points, almost 20 points clear of Chen. Ren was another 10 points back.

Fellow Olympic champion Shi Tingmao, who won the 3m springboard solo and synchronised golds in Tokyo, pulled out of the solo event in Xian after picking up an injury in the synchronised diving final on Friday.

China fans have high hopes for Quan Hongchan’s siblings

Shi got through the final and helped Chongqing to gold but the team announced she would not compete in the individual preliminaries, which began today.

Quan’s coach said that the teenager will miss the opening ceremony on Wednesday as she needs to train despite her events having already finished.

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