Danish taekwondist wins Games' 1st gold, Chinese divers shine at Universiade

ESSEN, Germany, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Danish taekwondo athlete Eva Eun-Kyung Sandersen, a nine-time world poomsae medalist and 11-time European champion, won the first gold medal of FISU World University Games from the women's poomsae here on Thursday.

"It's everything I want, and it's everything I think about and do. It's so meaningful to me," said Sandersen.

Chinese divers He Yanwei and Lu Wei presented steady performance of five routines to score 330.18 points to earn team China its first gold medal in women's synchronized 10m platform, followed by Germany's Pauline Pfeif and Carolina Coordes, who were 35.58 points less.

"I wanted beautiful pictures for my socials, so I was smiling big on the podium," said He Yanwei referring to her expression at the award ceremony.

The bronze medal went to Lanie Gutch and Kayleigh Clark. The American pair was 73.56 points behind the winners.

Japan's pair Meiho Nishizawa and Karen Yamasaki were forced to withdraw from competition after Nishizawa landed on her back in their fourth dive.

"It's terrifying. I think she's (Nishizawa) kind of traumatized, I believe," said Pfeif.

"It's really rare to land that way. It's mostly when you miscalculate your running, and it often happens when you do the running and jump right on the edge, so you're more likely to slip up. I always have my space on the edge."

The host Germany took the advantage of Chinese divers' mistake in their first routine to win the mixed 3m springboard to obtain its first gold on home soil by Lena Hentschel and Luis Avila Sanchez in 288.21 points.

Chinese duo Mei Yingxin and Fan Yi had to settle with the second place trailing by 12.81 points. Team USA got another bronze of diving as Eliana Joyce and Maxwell Miller were 22.56 points less than the winners.

American swimmers won both men's and women's 4x100m relays. Kaitlyn Reclusado and Sunghyun Eric Gun gave the U.S. another gold from mixed pair poomsae of taekwondo.

Oh Min-hyeok finished top in men's poomsae of taekwondo to give South Korea its first gold here. Park Sangwon added the second from men's sabre after beating Hungary's Gergo Horvath 15-8.

Hong Kong, China further proved the team's talent on fencing as Hsieh Kaylin Sin Yan edged out Ukraine's Anna Maksymenko 9-8 to win the women's epee. Hungary's Edina Kardos took the bronze.

Individual neutral athlete Nikolai Kolesnikov won the men's 400m freestyle in three minutes and 46.66 seconds, 0.72 seconds ahead of Malaysia's Khiew Hoe Yean.

Team USA leads the medal tally with three gold and five bronze medals, followed by South Korea on 2-2-1 and China on 1-2-2 after Day 1 competitions. ■