Favorites China win 10-meter mixed synchro diving at worlds

China’s Lian Junjie and Si Yajie compete during the mixed’s 10m synchro platform final competitions at the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Saturday, July 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

GWANGJU, South Korea — Favorites Lian Junjie and Si Yajie of China easily won gold in the 10-meter platform mixed synchro event to start the diving program Saturday at the world swimming championships.

Lian and Si, the 2016 silver medalists at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, finished with 356.14 points. Ekaterina Beliaeva and Viktor Minibaev of Russia took the silver with 311.28 points, 35 points behind the winners, followed by the Mexican pair of Maria Jose Sanchez and Jose Balleza Isaias with 287.64.

Britain’s Robyn Birch and Noah Williams were a close fourth with 285.18, followed by Americans Olivia Rosendahl and Zachary Cooper with 267.96 points.

Two more diving events were scheduled later Saturday — the 1-meter women’s springboard and the 3-meter springboard men’s synchro.

They are the first three of 13 diving events at the world championships, all of them qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics next year.