Chen wins 4th Olympic diving gold

Chen Ruolin of China won her fourth gold medal in the last two Olympics Thursday with a victory in women's platform diving. She overwhelmed the field with a series of dazzling dives and completed an Olympic double-double. Chen also won the platform gold medal in Beijing and she teamed with different partners to win the synchronized platform event in 2008 and again in these Olympics. Her point total of 422.30 for five dives made her the runaway winner over Australia's Brittany Broben, who wound up with 366.50. Pandelela Rinong Pamg of Malaysia was third with 359.20. Chinese divers were expected to finish 1-2 in the event, but 2011 world championship silver medalist Hu Yadan got off to a terrible start and had no chance of catching up. She received scores of 6.0 for her initial dive, a forward 3 1/2 somersault in the pike position, and that put her in last place. Things got even worse when scores of 4.5 were posted for an inward 3 1/2 somersault in the tuck position. Hu eventually finished ninth among the 12 divers in the final. The victory for Chen was the sixth in the seven diving competitions held thus far at the Olympics. Only the men's platform event remains and it was there that China suffered its only loss at the 2008 Games. Australian Matthew Mitcham will try for his second gold medal when men's platform diving is contested Saturday.