The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Blythe Hartley ends China's domination

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Wednesday, Jul 20, 2005

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Sport - Swimming

Blythe Hartley ends China's domination

MONTREAL: Blythe Hartley led all the way in winning the one-metre springboard title at swimming's World championships on Monday night, giving Canada its second medal, and first gold, in as many days.

``I thought, maybe, my goal is to make top six in the finals,'' Hartley said. ``Coming in first is just a shock. It's really exciting for me.''

Hartley easily beat Wu Min Xia of China, preventing the Chinese from a possible sweep of diving gold medals.

``The Chinese are absolutely amazing and such great divers. It's an honour,'' said Hartley, who led after the preliminaries and semifinals.

The Chinese won two synchronised gold medals on Sunday on the first day of competition. They are coming off the Athens Olympics where they won six of eight diving golds.

Hartley finished first with 325.65 points. Wu had 299.80. Heike Fischer of Germany earned bronze with 299.46.

``I'm very happy and I'm very proud of my bronze medal,'' Fischer said. ``I'm still not realizing it now. It's very wonderful.''

Anna Lindberg of Sweden was fourth, Alejandra Fuentes of Venezuela was fifth and American Christina Loukas finished last in the field of six.

Memorable win

Hartley, a 23-year-old from Vancouver, won the one-metre world title in 2001 and finished third in the event two years later.

``When I won in 2001 that was such a huge shock. In Barcelona (2003), I didn't dive my best,'' Hartley said. ``This year was special because I didn't focus on one-metre because it's not an Olympic event. It's the most memorable win because it's in the home country.'' — AP

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