Not one to rock the boat, China’s men finished 1-2 in the preliminaries of the men’s springboard diving competition at the 2008 Olympic Games.

He Chong leads his teammate Qin Kai by 12.55 points, although these scores have no bearing on the final medals. The divers will start from zero when the semifinals begin at 10 pm EST on August 18.

It appeared to be a shaky start for many of the medal contenders, with the only real solid performances put up by the Chinese, Yahel Castillo of Mexico, and the "old man" from Russia, 34-year-old Dmitri Sautin.


Castillo, a bronze medalist from the 2008 FINA World Cup, finished in third. Sautin, the owner of eight Olympic medals, was in fourth.

The day did see Castillo and He perform two of the more interesting dives of the contest. Castillo’s final round dive was a reverse 2 ½ somersaults with 2 ½ twists with a degree of difficulty of 3.9. He performed a forward 2 ½ somersaults with 3 twists, with a degree of difficulty of 3.8. Both divers scored over 90 points of their dives and could add an interesting twist in both the semifinals and finals.

Both U.S. divers advanced, with Chris Cowill in eighth and Troy Dumais in 12th. Dumais looked out of synch during the event, missing his back 2 ½ somersaults in pike and reverse 3 ½.

Event Notes:

• Missing from the semifinal round will be Brazil’s Cesar Castro, an eighth place finisher at the 2007 World Championships.

1. Men’s Olympic Springboard Diving Preliminary Results
   Top 18 Advance to Semifinals
   
2. He Chong (China) – 515.50
3. Qin Kai (China) - 502.95
4. Yahel Castillo (Mexico) – 480.65

1. Dmitri Sautin (Russia) – 474.85
2. Joona Puhakka (Finland) – 469.45
3. Robert Newbery (Australia) – 465.15
4. Chris Colwill (United States) – 464.75
5. Illya Kvasha (Ukraine) – 461.65
6. [/link url=http://diving.D106/od/olympics/p/DepatieOlympic.htm]Alexandre Despatie (Canada) – 453.60
7. Ken Terauchi (Japan) – 452.80
8. Patrick Hausding (Germany) – 451.65
9. Troy Dumais (United States) – 448.40
10. Reuben Ross (Canada) – 446.15
11. Juan Guillermo Uran (Columbia) – 443.05
12. Matthew Mitcham (Australia) – 439.85
13. Pavlo Rozenberg (Germany) – 431.65
14. Aleksandr Dobroskok (Russia) – 431.15
15. Nicola Marconi (Italy) – 430.90
16. Jorge Betancourt (Cuba) – 428.25
17. Javier Illana (Spain) – 423.90
18. Ramon Fumado Rodriguez (Venezuela) – 419.05
19. Constantin Blaha (Austria) – 407.55
20. Yuriy Shlyakhov (Ukraine) – 405.05
21. Cesar Castro (Brazil) – 400.60
22. Sergei Kuchmasov (Belarus) – 399.40
23. Benjamin Swain (Great Britain) – 390.30
24. Jorge Pupo (Cuba) – 388.70
25. Tommaso Marconi (Italy) – 360.15
26. Seongchel Son (Korea) – 353.35