Fu wins record-equalling fourth gold medal

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Sydney: Fu Mingxia, a world champion at 12, pulled off a record-equalling fourth Olympic diving gold medal in Sydney on Thursday when she retained the women's three-metre springboard title.

Fu, now 23, prevailed in a close duel with 18-year-old Chinese team-mate Guo Jingjing, clinching victory with a superb final dive to match the achievements of Americans Pat McCormick and Greg Louganis, the only other divers in history to have won four Olympic golds.

The crowd-pleasing win completed a golden treble for China on the diving boards on Thursday after two runaway triumphs for Chinese pairs in synchronised diving events introduced to the Olympic programme in Sydney.

Fu won the 1992 Olympic platform title, completed a platform and springboard double in 1996 and has now won the springboard crown a second time.

Fu, who produced the highest-scoring dives of each of the last three rounds, won with an aggregate total of 609.42 points from five semi-final and five final dives.

Guo took the silver with 597.81 and Germany's Doerte Lindner the bronze with 574.35, edging out Pakhalina, who had beaten her for the gold at the European championships in Helsinki in July.

Fu, who retired and went to university after her golden double in Atlanta, returned to international competition at the 1999 World University Games in Palma, where she won both the platform and the three-metre springboard titles.



(c) Reuters Limited.