China's He Chong celebrates after winning the men's 3m springboard final at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai Friday. – Reuters SHANGHAI – Qin Kai missed a dive so badly, his teammate and some of the other athletes thought he'd had an accident. Instead, it was just bad luck. He Chong successfully defended his 3-meter title at the world championships, giving China its eighth gold medal after Qin's stunning mistake cost his country another likely medal Friday. Germany's Thomas Lurz was hailed as one of the all-time swimming greats Friday as he sealed his fifth world open water title in a dramatic 5km race. Lurz left it desperately late before overhauling Greek rival Spyros Gianniotis in the final meters of the gruelling event for his third medal in three races at Jinshan City Beach. Bronze medallist Evgeny Drattsev of Russia said Lurz, who also won the event in 2005, 2007 and 2009 – when he also won the 10km – had proved himself as one of the great athletes. In the women's event, Switzerland's Swann Oberson took gold with Aurelie Muller claiming France's first medal of the championships and American Ashley Twichell taking bronze. He totaled 554.30 points in the six-dive final, taking the lead in the fifth round when Qin dropped from first to fifth. Qin, the 2007 champion, finished fourth. Ilya Zakharov of Russia earned the silver with 508.95, and teammate Evgeny Kuznetsov took the bronze with 493.55. Natalia Ishchenko won her fifth gold medal here when she combined with Svetlana Romashina to win the synchronized swimming duets free title. The 25-year-old Ishchenko had already won both solo titles and was also a member, with Romashina, of the gold medal winning free combination team Thursday. The duo had also won the duets technical title. Ishchenko has now won 15 world titles in total and her five golds in Shanghai surpasses the four titles she won in Rome in 2009. Chinese twins Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen claimed silver while Spain's Andrea Fuentes and Ona Carbonell took the bronze. Zakharov and Kuznetsov earned their second medals of the meet, having teamed to share silver in the 3-meter synchro. It was the first time in four individual events that the Chinese didn't finish 1-2. Overall, the hosts have won 11 diving medals.
