China Wins First Gold at Diving World Cup 2025 in Windsor

China won back-to-back gold medals in the mixed team contest on the 2025 World Cup tour, maintaining a strong lead in the contest on Friday. China’s heavy lifting was done by 19-year-old Cheng Zilong, who participated in three of the six dives. Chen Yuxi, a 19-year-old countrywoman and two-time Olympic silver medallist in the women’s 10m, earned the highest score of the competition when she performed an armstand back triple on the 10m platform, adding 90.75 points to China’s winning total of 478.80.

Germany was expecting to improve on its bronze medal from last week in Guadalajara, but it struggled in the 10m rounds and ended up in sixth place at the halfway mark of the race, trailing China by 36.45 points.

Randal Willars Valdez’s forward 4½ on the 10m platform, which is known for its 4.1 degree of difficulty, helped Mexico surge up the scoreboard in the final rounds and win the silver medal. On Friday, he was the sole diver to enter the area above 4 DD. The judges gave the dive 7s and 7.5s, so it wasn’t his best, but it still helped Mexico to second place with 90.20 points, which was good for second place with 412.70.

Consistent diving from their 10m aces, Sarah Jodoin di Maria, 25, and economics student Riccardo Giovannini, 22, helped Italy win the bronze medal, 10.35 points behind Mexico.

After winning gold, China’s divers said they could have performed better and kept their strategy, if they had one, a secret. Cheng Zilong expressed his happiness at achieving better scores than he did at the Guadalajara World Cup and credited his progress to “putting more on this competition.”

Chen Yuxi believed that she helped China win another gold by performing “the same” in Windsor as she did in Guadalajara, on the same dives.

Three of the four divers that Team Mexico entered competed in the Guadalajara team event, where it placed fourth. Willars Valdez, who trains in Monterrey, was the newest member of the Windsor team.

Watching 14-year-old Mia Zazil Cueva Lobato of Mexico compete in the 3m event, including her 3m synchro dive with two-time Olympic medallist Osmar Olvera Ibarra at the 2024 Summer Olympics, was entertaining. The 20-year-old Olvera lowered his customarily lofty DD to make room for the young Guadalajara wonder.

Cueva Lobato said that by focusing on her breathing, she was able to maintain her composure.

Regarding the bronze medal winners, 22-year-old Chiara Pellacani stated her Italian team was highly reliable and collaborated effectively.

Her countryman, Matteo Santoro, 18, a triple junior world champion in springboard admitted, “I didn’t dive very good today, but the team is amazing and I’m so proud of them. We talk to each other between dives. We just tried to cheer each other on.”

Italy’s 10m ace Jodoin di Maria added, “We hope to do a bit better in China [at the Super Final in Beijing], let’s put it that way. I don’t think it would be possible to beat China, but to overtake Mexico, maybe we can clean up our entries and hope for the best.”

Next: On Saturday, four additional gold medalists will be crowned in the women’s 3m synchro and men’s 10m synchro events, which begin at 10 am local time. In the latter part of the day, two-time Olympic silver medalist Wang Zongyuan, 23, and his colleague Zheng Jiuyuan, 20, will compete in the men’s 3m solo final and the women’s individual 10m final, where Chinese teenagers Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi were the top qualifiers.