Natalia Ishchenko won her fourth gold medal of the World Swimming Championships Thursday as Russia continued its domination of the synchronized swimming in Shanghai with victory in the free combination event. Ishchenko, who had already won the solo technical and free golds and combined with Svetlana Romashina to win the duet technical, helped the Russians to a score of 98.470 points to give their country their fifth synchronized swimming title in the main indoor pool at the Oriental Sports Center. The 25-year-old Ishchenko has now won 14 world championships gold medals in her storied career. She can add to her total Friday having qualified for the duet free final with Romashina, who also was in the gold-medal winning team Thursday. China won the silver on 96.360 points while Canada, the last team to perform, took bronze after scoring 96.150 and breaking up the Russia-China-Spain triumvirate which had been the only countries on the podium in the four previous finals. China's Chen Ruolin won the women's 10 meters platform diving title after compatriot and close rival Hu Yudan's nerves got the better of her. Chen, who combined with Wang Hao to win the 10 metres platform synchro gold earlier, scored 405.30 points, while Hu finished on 394.00 after scoring just 42.90 points in the fourth round of dives. Mexico's Paolo Espinosa, who won the title in Rome in 2009, took bronze (377.15). “I was defeated by Hu Yadan at the World Cup (last year), and it harmed my confidence,” Chen, the Beijing Olympic champion in the event told reporters.
