TANIA CAGNOTTO won Italy’s first diving gold medal for 40 years Tuesday in the women’s 1m springboard final to break China’s winning streak at the world championships in Kazan.

    Cagnotto, the reigning European champion, led from the start in Kazan, Russia, and held on through all five rounds for a winning score of 310.85 points, beating Shi Tingmao of China by 1.65 points.

    The bronze medal went to another Chinese diver; He Zi, the former world champion, scored 300.30.

    Cagnotto qualified for a sixth Olympics at age 30 despite getting outscored by Shi in the final round.

    Shi’s last dive carried a 2.6 degree of difficulty compared to 2.4 for Cagotto. Shi earned 70.20 points to 61.20 for Cagnotto, who has never been higher than fifth at the Olympics. The Italian benefited from her early lead, carrying a 10.65-point advantage into the last round that allowed her to survive being outscored.

    Between them, Shi and He had won three of the last four world titles in this event and Cagnotto’s win ended a streak of 14 world gold medals for China in women’s diving events. The previous world championship event in which China did not win gold was also the women’s 1m springboard, back in 2009.

    Chinese divers had previously been enjoying a purple patch at Kazan’s Aquatics Palace by winning five of the five previous events in a bid to emulate their 2011 clean sweep of all 10 diving medals when the world championships were held in Shanghai.

    (SD-Agencies)