The women's 3m Synchro event was dominated by the flawless performances of the reigning Olympic Champions, Chinese pair Minxia Wu and Jing Jing Guo.
The Russian pair of Yuliya Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova fought hard to remain in contention for gold with equally consistent performances but the Chinese were too strong. The fight for the bronze medal was closely contested between Great Britian's Hayley Sage and Tandi Gerrard and America's Ariel Rittenhouse and Kelci Bryant.
At the half way stage it was looking like the British pair were making an impression as the American pair lost synchronisation marks on their inward 2 and a half somersault, but the Americans finished with some great dives of greater difficulty to maintain their lead over Sage and Gerrard and the bronze medal position.
Britain's Stacie Powell produced her best performance to date and a British best score for the home crowd in the first semi final of the women's 10m platform. Powell won semi final A with a score of 370.45 as a result of consistent performances across all of her dives and beat China's World Champion in 2007 Xin Wang into second place and Haley Ishimatsu of the United States into third. Powell and Wang qualified for the final.
Also in the final were Paola Espinosa of Mexico, who stamped her authority on the competition following an excellent performance on her reverse 3 and a half somersault dive to win semi final B, and Emilie Heymans of Canada. Tatiana Ortiz of Mexico failed to qualify, finishing in third in semi final B, following some mistakes on her first three dives.
The pressure of the final caused some mistakes by most of the finalists, which cost Wang of China the gold medal on her fourth dive to the advantage of Mexico's Paola Espinosa who simultaneously produced her best dive, an inward three and a half somersaults, scoring five nines from the judges.
Espinosa went on to claim the gold, with Wang in second place and Heymans of Canada in third. Despite producing the most consistent performance, Britain's Powell finished in fourth.
On winning the gold medal, Espinosa said: "I'm very happy with the result. To get the gold makes me feel that I'm ready for the next level. There are many competitions that I will use for my Olympic preparation and this is a great start."
