TOKYO — Cao Yuan outdueled his teammate to win the men’s 10-meter platform title on Saturday, giving China gold medals in seven of the eight diving events at the Tokyo Olympics.
He became the first diver to win gold medals in three different Olympic events.
The only event the Chinese didn’t win was men’s platform synchro, where they finished second. China swept the four women’s events. In further confirmation of the country’s dominance, China finished 1-2 in all four of the individual events.
Cao totaled 582.35 points for six dives. His teammate, Yang Jian, took silver at 580.40.
Britain’s Tom Daley earned bronze at 548.25. He now has four Olympic medals in his career — one gold and three bronze.
Cao and Yang dueled through their final three dives.
Diving just ahead of Cao, Yang scored 112.75 points for the toughest dive of the final, a forward 4 1/2 somersaults pike that carries a 4.1 degree of difficulty. He earned marks ranging from 9.0 to 9.5 for his last dive.
Yang popped his head to the surface and pumped his fists.
Cao was too good, though.
He answered with a back 2 1/2 somersaults with 2 1/2 twists pike — not as difficult as Yang’s last dive, but it was worth two 10s. Cao received 9.5s for his other marks, giving him just enough to edge his teammate by 1.95 points.
Daley led after his second and third dives. He received three perfect marks of 10 on his first dive and one 10 on his second. But he fell to third on his fourth dive and stayed there the rest of the way.
Daley did beat the Chinese in 10-meter synchro with partner Matty Lee. They beat Cao and Chen Aisen by 1.23 points.
Cao added to the golds he won on the 3-meter springboard at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and in 10-meter synchro at the 2012 London Olympics. He also became only the second man to win medals in all four Olympic diving events after Russia’s Dmitry Sautin.
American Jordan Windle finished ninth among 12 divers. His teammate, Brandon Loschiavo, was 11th.
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