BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- Experience and stability are the key factors for Olympic champions Chen Aisen/Cao Yuan and Ren Qian/Si Yajie as they topped the China's diving qualification first leg here on Friday.
According to the China Swimming Association, it will host a two-leg qualifying meet to select the Chinese divers for the FINA World Swimming Championships slated for mid July in Gwangju, South Korea.
Chen/Cao, who trained together for three months, showed their best form to score 484.68 points, beating Qiu Bo/Yang Jian's 460.41 in the men's 10m synchro platform.
As double winner at the men's platform in Rio Olympic Games, Chen said: "I was very excited that we did better than we trained. We both have good stability and the same style in techniques."
Cao, two-time Olympic champion in 10m synchro platform in 2012 and in 3m springboard in 2016, opted to challenge two events at the same time since last year. "I did not feel any pressure at all and we are just getting more confident and better together."
In the women's 10m synchro platform, defending world champions Ren Qian/Si Yajie snatched the first leg victory by winning 349.29, well ahead of Zhang Jiaqi/Lu Wei on 322.32.
"It is not easy to beat the young divers since they are shorter and lighter. We have to use our experience and stability to take the victory," said Ren, the 10m platform Olympic champion in 2016.
"We are making our efforts to get closer to the Gwangju worlds after today's qualification. But we need to improve on our entries," said the Olympic runner-up Si.
In the other individual events, world champion Xie Siyi and Olympic champion Shi Tingmao led the men's and women's 3m springboard respectively, while Yang Jian and Si Yajie topped the 10m platform.
The two-day qualification meet will end on Feb. 16.
