Cao wins men's 10m platform to complete China's golden sweep

PARIS: Cao Yuan won the men's 10-metre platform event on Saturday (Aug 10) at the Paris Olympics to complete a golden sweep for China, the first time a country has won all the diving events at one Games.

Rikuto Tamai of Japan took silver to land Japan's first ever Olympic diving medal, and Britain's Noah Williams finished in third place to claim the bronze.

Four-time Olympian Cao, 29, successfully defended his title against 17-year-old Tamai, who delivered some of Saturday's best dives in an exhilarating final that had the crowd roaring over and over again.

Cao's win meant China took all eight diving golds up for grabs in Paris.

"I haven't thought about getting the eighth gold. I was more focused on my own competition," Cao told reporters after the event.

"I won the event last time so I have some experience, even though I performed better last time than today," he said. "I ran into some difficulties (since Tokyo) and persevered. When it came to the Olympics this time, I just believed I could absolutely do a good job. I was very confident."

Tamai had wowed fans with a superbly executed first dive, only to be overtaken by Cao, who scored 96.90 points with an average score of 9.5 from the judges to establish a strong lead.

The Japanese teenager came back with a stronger performance in the second round to overtake Cao and continued with a top-notch third dive.

Tamai however had a problematic fifth dive which ended with a massive splash. That mistake eventually cost him the gold, allowing Cao to widen his lead as the Chinese veteran dived with composure to finish off on 547.50 points.

"Japan's first medal is something I achieved today. I was concsious of that goal. I was nervous as well. I felt slightly wary of this challenge, a lot