SYNCHRO MEDAL HIGHLIGHT ON WORLD SERIES OPENING WEEKEND

A silver medal for Australia’s 3-metre synchro team and a 3-metre final for Maddison Keeney were the highlights for Australia on the opening weekend of the Diving World Series in Beijing, China.

The diving World Series is restricted to the best athletes in the world.

Keeney and Anabelle Smith, bronze medalists in the 3-metre synchro at last year’s Commonwealth Games, turned the tables on the two teams that finished ahead of them in Edinburgh to claim silver in Beijing.

The only combination that dived better were the highly rated Chinese pair, Shi Tingmao and Wu Minxia.

The Commonwealth Games gold medalists, Great Britain’s Alicia Blagg and Rebecca Gallantree, finished with bronze, while Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware were unable to recapture their silver-medal winning form from last year, finishing fifth.

18-year-old Keeney also made it through to the world-class final of the 3-metre springboard, diving strongly to finish sixth.

There were also good signs for Australia’s brand-new platform synchro team of Lara Tarvit and Melissa Wu.

The pair finished fourth in their first major competition diving together, and finished 10th and 11th respectively in the individual platform.

Chinese divers dominated the competition, winning gold in every event.

The World Series moves to Dubai this weekend, with Australia sending the same team.