Shanxi Daily new media reporter Li Qianqian reported that one branch bloomed on a one-meter board! On June 29, Beijing time, the 2022 World Swimming Championships continued in Budapest. In the competition for the women's one-meter springboard, Shanxi girl Li Yajie relied on her superior difficulty and stable performance to defeat strong opponents such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. , another gold medal for Chinese diving team . This gold medal is extraordinary. It is the 101st gold medal won by the Chinese diving team at the World Championships and the first women's diving world champion in Shanxi Sports.
Li Yajie (middle) won the women's one-meter springboard championship
Li Yajie, born in 2002, was selected from the Datong Sports School to train for the Shanxi Provincial Diving Team at the age of 7. At the same time, he studied at the No. 3 Experimental Primary School in Yingze District, Taiyuan City, and started his career. A career of learning and training. At the Second National Youth Games held in Shanxi in 2019, Li Yajie stood out and won the men's and women's mixed three-meter springboard championship and the women's one-meter springboard runner-up. The first battle to become famous occurred at the 2021 National Diving Championships. She won the championship with a total score of 318.35 points, setting a new record for the highest score among Chinese athletes in this event in recent years. With his outstanding performance in this competition, he entered the Chinese diving team in November of the same year. On June 10 this year, the roster of the Chinese diving team for the World Championships was announced. 20-year-old Li Yajie appeared in the women's one-meter springboard lineup. This is the first time Li Yajie has represented the national team in a world championship.
Li Yajie before taking off
Although it is his first time to compete in the World Series, Li Yajie is not alone. There is also a name from Shanxi on the list of coaches of the Chinese diving team - Chang Jing. At the 2005 Nanjing 10th National Games, the Shanxi "Liang Jingjing" combination formed by Chang Jing and Wang Liang became famous and won the men's synchronized ten-meter platform championship. After retiring, Chang Jing became a coach. The Shanxi diving community is paying special attention to Li Yajie's performance. Wei Fuchun, deputy director of the Shanxi Provincial Track and Field Swimming Center, said that Li Yajie's technical characteristics are high difficulty, sufficient strength and good rhythm; he usually trains hard and has a bit of a boyish personality. In the more than half a year after being selected for the national team, Li Yajie improved very quickly, and Li Yajie's movement skills reached a higher level.
The stands were filled with cheers
More than 50 contestants participated in the preliminaries that day, and the top 12 entered the finals. In the women's one-meter board, another player of the Chinese team Lin Shan retired. In this way, Li Yajie's main opponents are Bacon of the US team, Valery of the Canadian team, and Chinese athlete Qin Fan of the Australian team. For Li Yajie, he fights alone and bears the pressure alone. In Chang Jing's view, Li Yajie's biggest opponent is herself. Her advantage lies in the high difficulty. This competition has been slightly lowered. As long as she performs stably, she has great hope for gold. For Li Yajie, who is participating in the World Series for the first time, this is a test. This is a psychological test that any outstanding athlete must pass.
Li Yajie in the competition. Xinhua News Agency/Picture
Li Yajie’s performance was quite stable, and he reached the finals with the first place in the preliminaries. The competition in the final made Wei Fuchun, who was watching the game late at night in front of the TV, quite nervous. "I didn't expect that the difficulty of the American players would also increase. Fortunately, Li Yajie withstood the pressure and played bravely at his own pace when he fell behind. "After this battle, Wei Fuchun was full of praise for Li Yajie, "Li Yajie is very good in terms of psychological quality and on-the-spot performance, and has the basic qualities of a high-level athlete." In the end, Li Yajie won with a total score of 300.85 points. In the gold medal, Bacon of the United States and Valery of Canada won the runner-up and third place respectively.
The Chinese diving team has won a total of 95 world championships since it first participated in the World Championships in 1982 until this event, ranking first in the gold medal list and medal list. In Budapest, the Chinese diving team has won 6 gold medals in a row, including Li Yajie's women's one-meter springboard gold medal, which raised the number of Chinese diving team's gold medals in the World Championships to 101. This is a new beginning.
Li Yajie and Chang Jing (right) compete in the World Championships
This is also a milestone for Shanxi diving.Shanxi's diving foundation is weak, but in the past 20 years, thanks to the hard work of senior coaches such as Liang Shunli, outstanding players such as Chang Jing, Wang Liang, Zhou Xin, and Zhang Xinghao have emerged. At the 2017 Swimming World Championships, Shanxi player Li Zheng and Hebei player Wang Han partnered to win the men's and women's mixed synchronized 3-meter springboard championship. This was Shanxi's first world championship in diving. What is gratifying is that both Li Zheng and Li Yajie are "post-00s" athletes. Driven by these outstanding local athletes, Shanxi diving is worth looking forward to in the future.
Source: Shanxi Daily
