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Mitcham foils Chinese title sweep

BEIJING
Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:50am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Australia's Matthew Mitcham foiled China's bid for a first sweep of Olympic diving titles in more than 50 years with a dramatic victory in the men's platform final on Saturday.

Mitcham pulled off a magnificent final dive to overhaul China's Zhou Luxin, who had led through the first five rounds of the six-dive final.

World silver medalist Zhou faltered on his final effort and Mitcham, diving next, nailed his concluding back 2- somersaults with 2- twists for a monumental score of 112.10 points.

Mitcham amassed 537.95 points to win from Zhou, who totaled 533.15 and Russian world champion Gleb Galperin, who had 525.80. China had won all the other seven diving crowns in Beijing.

(Writing by Derek Parr; editing by Jeremy Laurence)


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