Fans who turned out at the OCBC Aquatic Centre yesterday for the Fina Diving Grand Prix Singapore Presented by 100Plus would have caught some of China's future Olympic stars in action.
The diving powerhouse swept all four golds on the second day of the competition, and Chinese coach Hao Zhiguo said that the performance of the young divers, aged between 14 and 27, bodes well for the country's ambitions at major Games.
"I am delighted with their showing, because some of them can still be considered kids," said the coach, 42. "That said, to win at this level is very impressive."
Huang Xiaohui and Ying Wei won the women's 3m synchronised springboard with 315.90 points, finishing some way ahead of Ukraine duo Elena Federova and Diana Shelestyuk (274.20).
Duan Yu and Wang Zewei took the gold in the men's synchronised 10m platform with 414.48, ahead of Britain's Benjamin Cutmore and Lucas Thompson (405.36) and Russia's Roman Izmailov and Sergey Nazin (393.60).
It was a China one-two finish in the men's 3m springboard - Tai Xiaohu (465.25) and Miao Zhanming (450.20) finishing ahead of Puerto Rico's Rafael Quintero (433.00).
It was another Chinese one-two to wrap up the session, as Tang Yixuan scored 375.35 in the women's 10m platform to pip Lin Shan (357.60). The bronze went to Japan's Matsuri Arai (339.50).
Three of the six divers who won golds yesterday are still teenagers. Tang and Duan are 14 and Wang 16.
Hao proudly whipped out his mobile phone to show a picture of the Chinese diving team in the 2014 Singapore event, and pointed to four who went on to win medals at the Rio Olympics two years later.
They were gold medallists Chen Aisen (men's 10m platform and synchronised 10m), Liu Huixia (women's synchronised 10m) and Ren Qian (women's 10m), as well as silver medallist Si Yajie (women's 10m).
Hao believes that some of the current squad could emulate their predecessors, saying: "The team we have in Singapore are the backup to our main divers, and many are considered China's rising stars.
"I would say they have a high possibility of carrying on China's dominance in diving in the years to come, but they must continue to keep training and competing at competitions like this to reach the level they aim to be."
He singled out Tai, the 2015 platform world champion whom he personally coaches, for praise after the 21-year-old won his first springboard title after a switch last year.
The Fina Diving Grand Prix Singapore ends today with four finals - the women's synchronised 10m platform and 3m springboard, and the men's synchronised 3m springboard and 10m platform.
The finals begin at 2pm and tickets can be purchased from Apactix.
