China's two divers breezed through the semi-finals of the women's 10 metre platform on Thursday, setting the host nation up as favourites for a seventh consecutive gold in a sport it has completely dominated.
The home team is particularly keen to top the podium at the evening final, because the women's high board is the only individual diving event it did not win at the last two Olympics.
Teenager Chen Ruolin, World Cup champion, world number one and favourite for the gold even though she is the youngest diver still in the competition, finished an easy first.
She was over 40 points ahead of her closest rival after picking up three perfect 10s and finishing with the highest scoring dive of the day.
Team mate Wang Xin came in third, echoing a pattern set at the individual springboard events where China took gold and bronze.
The Chinese duo are already gold medallists for the synchronised 10 metre platform event, which they won the day after Wang's 16th birthday.
Sandwiched between them was Mexican Paola Espinosa, who won a synchronised bronze but said she now had her eye on a gold medal.
‘I am in the battle. Tonight I am going to fight, I won't let anything slip by ... People always insist 'the (Chinese) girls are the best, they are going to win' but they are not unbeatable.’
A weak third dive edged Canada's Emilie Heymans out of the top three, but the 26-year-old, who finished third in the preliminaries, also said she was still a medal contender.
‘I know exactly what I've done wrong and I don't think its something that's really hard to change for the finals. I just didn't give enough energy at the start and that made it short and low,’ Heymans said.
Hoping to make a last splash before she retires was US diver Laura Wilkinson, who won the platform gold medal in Sydney, when she was the first female diver to beat China to the top of any Olympic podium since 1984.
‘For me it's the hope, the dream of getting a medal one more time,’ she told journalists after finishing sixth.
If Chen can dive as well in the final as she did in the morning, China will be just one gold short of a clean sweep of titles for the entire sport.
The last event will be the men's 10 platform, with the final on Saturday.
