Teenager world champion He Chong grabbed his third gold at China Spring Diving Championships in Jiangsu Changshu on Thursday.

In the men's three-meter springboard synchronized event, He Chong/ Luo Yutong from Guangdong breezily took victory with a total score of 434.85 points.

He Chong had notched up two gold medals in the men's one-meter and three-meter events while Luo Yutong grabbed two bronze medals.

After Thursday's easy win, Luo said, "It isn't surprising at all that we claimed victory in the event. Actually, I made a little mistake in the third dive and He Chong didn't performed well in the fourth round. However, we were good enough to win."

20-year-old Luo was recruited by the Chinese diving team after the East Asian Games where he bagged home two golds in last November. As a newbie in the dream team, Luo has won two three-meter springboard synchronized titles with Sichuan veteran Xu Xiang at this year's FINA Grand Prix.

Xu Chengliang/Tang Shaoyun from Shanghai took out the silver at 424.11 points and Huang Qiang/Bao Jiete from Jiangsu placed third at 407.46 points.

In the women's 10-meter platform event, 13-year-old Wang Hao showed her strong potential in the semi-finals by successfully executing a reverse three-and-a half somersault tuck and conquering a backward three-and-a-half somersault pike, the degree of difficulty of which reached 3.6.

However, the fledging failed to nail the two difficult dives in the final and finished sixth. Nevertheless, Wang could be proud as she became the first girl to execute a backward three-and-a-half somersault pike on the tower.

In yesterday's 10-meter platform synchronized event, Wang Hao picked up a bronze with teammate Kang Li.

With a last dive of 86.7 points, Liu Herui from the Chinese Army beat Guangdong's Lao Lishi into second place in the women's 10-meter platform final. Lao led the field of eight finallist in the first four dives but gave up the top position to Liu, whose total score was 383.70 points. Lao collected 379.80 points and her second silver at the National Championships.

Wang Han from the Wuhan team finished third at 374.00 points.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)