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Beijing 2008
Guo, Wu dive to glory
Afp, Beijing
GOLD DIVERS: Guo Jingjing (upper) and Wu Minxia perform in the women's synchronised 3m springboard diving competition at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing's National Aquatics Centre on Sunday. The Chinese team won the gold in the event. Photo: AFPDefending champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia of China won the Olympic women's synchronised three-metre springboard diving gold medal here on Sunday, having led the competition from the start.Alongside Wu, 22, Chinese superstar Guo, 27, collected the first of the two medals she is bidding for here in the Water Cube as the pair retained the Olympic title they won in Athens."I am satisfied with my performance today and we are both very happy, because we are on home soil in China - we are very proud to have won," said Guo who bowed with her partner to the cheering crowd after every dive."It's so exciting having our own people cheer for us and hopefully there will be more to celebrate in the coming days."Having also won the solo three-metres springboard title four years ago, Guo is the hot favourite in the individual event at her third and final Olympics, having said she will retire after the Games."I am not thinking of life after these games, everything is do is focused on winning here," she said.The Chinese were again unbeatable in the event having recently dominated the 2008 World Series by winning all three legs in Nanjing, Sheffield and Tijuana.The pair started strongly and scored three perfect tens in the second round for their back dive.They led by 17 points going into the final dive and made sure of the gold with a back two-and-a-half somersault.The Chinese pair made very few mistakes throughout, but Gou insisted plenty of hard work had gone into perfecting their gold medal-winning dives."It's not as easy or relaxed as people think," she said."We worked hard and trained hard every day."For this competition, we made a lot of preparations, training from morning to night, so although it looked easy to you, we earned it."We were under a lot of pressure before the competition, but we just focused on making sure we did what we had to do."Russia's Julia Pakhalina, who won gold in the same competition in Sydney with now retired Vera Ilynia, took the silver medal with her new partner Anastasia Pozdnyakova."I am pleased with the result, it was different diving here with Anastasia compared to Vera, but I am pleased with the way it went here," said the Russian who won her fourth diving medal at her third Olympics.And Germany's Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer made sure of bronze by winning the fifth round with a reverse two-and-a half somersault."Congratulations to the winners, they deserved it and we are just happy to have got our first medal," said Fischer.
One of several CNG filling stations between Kanchpur Bridge and Jatrabari of the capital which BNP big shots built on the Kutubkhali canal, drastically reducing Dhaka's drainage capability. PHOTO: STAR
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