(Beijing, February 24) China's Wu Minxia/Guo Jingjing successfully defended the women's 3m synchronized springboard title after scoring a five-round total of 362.10 to win the event at the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 16th FINA Diving World Cup held at the National Aquatics Center this evening. The silver and bronze went to Julia Pakhalina/Anastasia Pozdnyakova of Russia (329.61) and American pair Ariel Rittenhouse/Kelci Bryant (322.50)respectively.

The Chinese duo set up an early lead after the first two rounds, standing first with 112.80, 4.8 more than their Russian counterparts Pakhalina/Pozdnyakova.

On their third dive of inward 2 1/2 somersaults piked (DD 3.0), Wu/Guo scored 79.20 while the Russians gained 73.80 on 205B. Olena Fedorova/Alevtyna Korolyova of Ukraine moved up to third.

The Chinese pair consolidated their lead in the fourth round by getting 83.70 on 305B compared to 72.21 made by Pakhalina/Pozdnyakova.

In the final round, Wu/Guo produced the highest score of the finals by earning 86.40 on a 205B and the Russians collected 76.50 and had to settle for second. Ariel Rittenhouse/Kelci Bryant ranked third as a whole.

Placing fourth to eighth were teams from Ukraine, Italy, Britain, Mexico and Australia.