Awesome synchronized springboard diving!
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Guo and Wu, the current world champions, defended the 3-meter synchronized springboard title they won four years ago in Athens, finishing with 343.50 points.
They led through all five rounds of the competition, and were cheered wildly by their red flag-waving countrymen in the Water Cube.
Yulia Pakhalina and
Anastasia Pozdnyakova of Russia took silver with 323.61.
Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer of Germany earned the bronze with 318.90.
Americans
Kelci Bryant and
Ariel Rittenhouse missed a medal by 4.5 points, finishing fourth with 314.40. The United States hasn't won a diving medal since 2000, having been shut out in Athens in 2004.
Bryant and Rittenhouse were tied for first after the opening round and tied for second through the next two rounds before dropping to third. U.S. fans booed when the duo's marks for execution -- ranging from 6.0 to 7.5 -- were posted after their fourth dive.
Bryant and Rittenhouse were tied with the Germans going into the fifth and final dive, but the Germans earned the third-highest score of the competition, 76.50, to take the bronze. The Americans totaled 72.00 points on their last dive.
The Chinese fans were especially boisterous when Guo and Wu received three 10s for synchronicity on their backward dive in the second round.
Guo and Wu shook hands with the other medalists before being introduced as champions again. Flashbulbs popped all over the pool as they took their place on top of the medals podium.
Pakhalina returned to the podium for her third Olympics, though, this time with a different partner. The Russian won gold in the event at Sydney and silver in Athens with Vera Ilyna, who later retired.
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Watch the diving highlights online on nbcolympics.com:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0810_sd_dvw_rc_ce040&channelcode=sportdv
