(Beijing, February 22) In the fourth day's competitions of the "Good Luck Beijing" 16th FINA Diving World Cup at the National Aquatics Center this afternoon, China's Wu Minxia scored 366.00 to stand first in the women's 3m springboard preliminary round, 37.40 points ahead of her compatriot Guo Jingjing, with American Christina Loukas sitting in third.

Russian veteran Julia Pakhalina withdrew from today's heats where 52 divers were vying for the 18 semifinal berths.

Guo Jingjing led the first round by achieving 72.00 on a 205B dive and her teammate Wu scored 69.00 on 405B.

In the next round, Guo dropped to the third as Canadian Blythe Michaela Hartley came first temporarily with a 3½ somersault pike which earned her 75.95. Wu was still the third.

Wu began to show her edge since then, producing three 75+ dives in the following three rounds. But Guo Jingjing failed in completing a 107B dive in the third round, falling to eighth.

In the fourth round, Christina Loukas moved up to second after making a 305B which gained 73.50 points. Blythe Michaela Hartley had to settle for sixth trailing China's Guo.

Wu Minxia gained 75.00 on her last dive of 205B to finish first. Guo earned 75.00 too on an inward two and a half somersaults piked with a 3.0 degree of difficulty, placing second. Christina Loukas ranked third by making 63.00 on a 5152B dive.

As a result, 18 divers made to the semifinals, including Swedish Anna Lindberg, Australian Chantelle Newbery and Canadian Blythe Michaela Munro Hartley. The semis will be held tomorrow morning.