Teenager world champion He Chong took victory in the men's one-meter springboard event in Jiangsu Changshu on Tuesday at China Spring Diving Championships.

As a world championships rookie, He Chong scooped the gold of men's synchronized three-meter springboard at Montreal 2005 and picked up a bronze in the individual springboard event there. In the competition on Tuesday night, 18-year-old He surprised the crowd with an outstanding degree of difficulty, the sum of which reached 19.7, highest in the event.

Although the rising star of Chinese diving "armada" performed below par in the second round, He showed his superb capability in his following dive, earning 84.15 points with a splendid forward three and a half somersault.

In the end, the Guangdong native notched up the title with a total score of 436.75 points, followed by Xu Chengliang from Shanghai and Luo Yutong from Guangdong at 396.30 and 395.60 points respectively.

"As one-meter isn't my main events, I participated in the event tonight just for tasting the atmosphere of competition, so as to warm up for the three-meter events," said He after the awarding ceremony.

Besides, Olympic champion Guo Jingjing failed to pull off the first gold of the championships in the women's one-meter springboard event which took place in the morning.

Guo, unbeatable in the 2005 season and winner of four golds in the first two legs of 2006 FINA Grand Prix, collected only 31.05 points from her first dive on Tuesday, a backward one and a half somersault, as she bounced before the take-off.

According to FINA rules, if a diver bounces on a springboard or platform before the take-off, judges are going to award 4.5 points maximum.

As the 43rd starter among the 49 divers, Guo only managed to surpass two divers in the first round. However, the experienced veteran didn't lose her nerve after the "accident". Having completed her next four dives in style, Guo finally picked up the silver medal for Hebei with a total score of 269.85 points.

Wu Minxia from Shanghai, who combined Guo to snatch the synchronized three-meter springboard gold at 2004 Athens Olympics, took out the gold in the event at 276.85 points. Wu believed her performance on Tuesday was just normal, but "since the rules is more strict, I took off very carefully today", said Wu.

Yao Xinyi, Wu's teammate from Shanghai was awarded the bronze medal at 261.05 points.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2006)