Teenage star Ren among 13 Chinese divers to qualify for Rio
Rio de Janeiro, July 7 (IANS) Teenage prodigy Ren Qian is among 13 Chinese divers to qualify for next month’s Olympic Games here, the sport’s world governing body FINA confirmed.
Ren, 15, will be among the gold medal favourites in the individual 10-metre platform, having scored a perfect 10 in the category at the FINA World Cup in February, which also served as the official Olympic test event, reports Xinhua.
She will be joined in the 10m individual platform by compatriots Si Yajie, Qiu Bo and Chen Aisen. The latter also qualified for the 10m synchronised platform.
Other Chinese divers to earn Olympic berths are Cao Yuan (3m individual/3m synchro), He Chao (3m individual), Lin Yue (10m synchro), Qin Kai (3m synchro), Chen Ruolin (10m synchro), He Zi (3m individual), Liu Huixia (10m synchro), Shi Tingmao (3m individual/3m synchro) and Wu Minxia (3m synchro).
China won six of the eight diving gold medals available at the London 2012 Games and the Asian nation is expected to again feature prominently in this year’s Games.
The final list of Rio 2016 diving competitors includes 136 athletes, 88 of whom qualified at the Olympic test event. Diving events will be held at the refurbished Maria Lenk Aquatics center in Barra Olympic Park from August 7 to 20.