The Chinese diving and flower tour teams arrived at the competition venue and were about to start the gold winning mode of the World Championships, and Guo Jingjing revisited the old place
The FINA 2023 World Aquatics Championships will be held in Fukuoka, Japan, on July 14, with diving and synchronized swimming competitions taking place first. The Chinese diving team and the Huayou team arrived at the venue on July 9 and 10 respectively, and respectively conducted four and three days of "stepping on the field" adaptation training. According to the schedule, the diving competition starting on the 14th will be the preliminary round of the men's and women's 1-meter springboard in the non-Olympic events, and the men's and women's singles technical optional and women's doubles technical optional competition will be held in the flower game venue.
The indoor competition of the World Championships will be held at the Fukuoka Marine Convention and Exhibition Center, one of the two swimming halls will be used as the venue for diving and flower games, where swimming competitions will be held later, and the other hall will be used for men's and women's water polo competitions, which will continue throughout the event. Before the start of the competition, in order to allow more athletes to get training opportunities and sufficient practice time, the organizing committee also built temporary springboards and other facilities by the pool, which is equivalent to doubling the training facilities relative to the fixed, board position, despite this, because there are more players from all over the world who come to train, the training schedule of each team is relatively compact, and the training of flower sports is the same. After a few days of practice, except for some members of the Huayou team who felt that the water temperature was slightly low, the rest of the internal and external environment was not a big problem, and the players of both teams had adapted.
The 2001 World Aquatics Championships were held in Fukuoka, a reincarnation after 22 years. The tournament was supposed to be held in 2021, but despite great difficulties and two postponements, the organizers' perseverance paid off, and with the support of FINA, they were finally able to achieve their long-cherished wish this year.
The only members of the Chinese diving team, who participated in the Fukuoka World Championships 22 years ago, were Zhou Jihong, president and leader of the Chinese Swimming Association, and Wang Feng, the coach, whose identities were completely different from now, but the purpose of returning to the place was the same, that is, to lead the athletes to win more gold medals for the Chinese diving team. At the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, China won 8 gold medals in 10 diving events, and the number of diving events at this World Championships has increased to 13, and the goal of the "dream team" is not to let one championship be sidelined.
It is worth mentioning that another Chinese diving star who participated in the Fukuoka World Championships 22 years ago also came to the place where her legend began, although she was not in the Chinese delegation this time, but it was also the glory of Chinese diving. It is from the first Fukuoka World Championships, she won the women's 3m springboard singles and doubles championships in five consecutive World Championships, no one has ever come, 10 world championship gold medals shined, and later won four gold medals in the women's 3m springboard single and double finals in two Olympic Games, known as the "diving queen", she is Guo Jingjing who came to Fukuoka as an official of the FINA Diving Technical Committee.
There is also a member of the Chinese Huayou team who participated in the Fukuoka World Championships, she is now head coach Zhang Xiaohuan. 22 years ago, Zhang Xiaohuan was a young player, when the Chinese team was not yet part of the world's top team, whether it was a double or team event, it could only rank around 6th or 7th in the world, but now they are at the forefront of the world. At the last World Championships in Budapest, with the efforts of Zhang Xiaohuan, the coaching staff and all the players, the Chinese Huayou girl won four gold medals. This time in Fukuoka, the Chinese team aims to continue to maintain its superiority and strive to achieve breakthroughs and progress on the basis of the previous edition.
Text/Beiqing Sports Liu Ailin