Quan faces growing challenge head on

Youth surge celebrated

Boasting a strong roster of multiple Olympic and world champions, the host contingent completed a clean sweep of all nine gold medals up for grabs at the Super Final in Beijing, with the rise of some next-generation divers stealing the show at the iconic Olympic arena.

In women's 3m springboard, 20-year-old Chen Jia continued her winning streak from two earlier Cup legs, and clinched the title in Beijing with 382.05 points, edging her Olympic champion teammate Chen Yiwen into second place. Maddison Keeney of Australia and Chiara Pellacani of Italy followed as the third and fourth finishers.

As a rookie to the Cup series, Chen Jia wrapped up her fruitful campaign with a huge confidence boost.

"I am really happy with the gold, but I still need to learn a lot from others. I should say I was a slow learner to the new format of head-to-head competition. I found my familiar pace only during the final," said the Sichuan province native, who was only selected into the national team at the end of last year.

Young men's 10m platform combo Zhu Zifeng and Cheng Zilong have emerged as surprising crowd pleasers, as they both scored perfect 10s in their attempts in the men's individual final.

Zhu earned five 10s from seven judges on his opening dive, and collected five 90-plus scores in six dives to win his first Super Final title and the Best Male Diver award.

"I didn't expect to win this gold medal, because I finished second at the two previous legs, but I also learned from that. I told myself to concentrate on my own techniques," said the 22-year-old Zhu, who also bagged the synchronized gold with partner Cheng.