CHANGSHU, East of China, July 23 -- Though sweeping away all the 10 gold medals on offer in the five-day 2006 FINA Diving World Cup, powerhouse China still has room to improve in the buildup to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.



Judging from the World Cup which concluded here on Sunday, the Chinese divers didn't have clear advantage in the degree of difficulty.



In the women's 10m platform, defending American Laura Wilkinson displayed a set of dives whose difficulty degree reached 17.2, 1.1 higher than those of champion Jia Tong and runner-up Lao Lishi of China.



Though muffing some dives in the final, the 28-year-old Wilkinson, the2000 Olympic title winner and 2005 world champion, completed the whole set in the semis to grab the highest score of 396.10 points.



David Boudia from the United States was also impressive in the men's 10m platform event by using a set of dives, whose difficulty degree reached 20.7, 0.4 higher than that of Lin Yue. The American defeated the Chinese hopeful to third in the preliminary but failed to enter the final because of some blunders in the semis.



In addition, the rise of some young divers showed the depth of Chinese diving, but the newcomers still need to handle properly the pressure in major events.



Lin, who will turn 15 on Monday, grabbed three golds in men's 10m platform at this year's Grand Prix, but he was gripped by nerves in his World Cup debut in the preliminary on Saturday and muffed his fourth and fifth dive.



Title favorite He Chong missed the podium of men's 3-meter springboard event on Thursday as he surprisingly failed to collect any point.

注释：

powerhouse：n. 发电站

muffing：v. 失误

blunder：n. 错误

Grand Prix：n. 大奖赛　

podium：n. 跳水台






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舞动空中的精灵


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