Fifth diving double in a row for unstoppable Guo

Olympic champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia won the women's 3m synchronised springboard event at the World Championships here on Friday.

For Guo it was the fifth time in a row she has won a 3m and 3m synchronised double at the worlds.

Italians Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape finished second with Russians Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdniakova pipping Jennifer Abel and Melanie Rinaldi of Canada for bronze.

The result was never in any doubt as Guo and Wu led from start to finish, as they had also done in the preliminaries.

Guo is the most successful diver of all time having won 10 world championship gold medals and four Olympic crowns.

She and Wu are double Olympic champions and have won four world titles as a pairing as well.

Guo has five synchronised crowns, though, as she teamed up with Li Ting in 2005. She won two titles with Wu before that and now two since as well.

But despite constant speculation surrounding her future, 27-year-old Guo insists she is not about to retire.

"We had a great performance. We get on very well, if we have the chance we will keep diving together," she said.

"The longer you work together, the more you improve as a couple. I never said I was going to retire after the Olympics, I just wanted to take a break and to rest for a little while."

The Chinese posted a score of 348.00, but behind them the true drama came in the battle for the minor placings.

Cagnotto and Dallape started out best of the rest but lost second place to Pakhalina, the 1m springboard champion, and Pozdniakova on the second round of dives.

The Russians held second until they made a mistake on their fourth dive and dropped down to fourth.

The Italians kept producing the goods, though, and finished on 329.70 points.

It meant the bronze medal was between the Russians and the Canadians but Pakhalina and Pozdniakova put in a big final dive to edge that battle by 310.80 points to 309.90.

Cagnotto, twice European 10m platform champion, was delighted to have finally landed a silver medal at the worlds after winning three bronze gongs, all in the 3m individual competition.

"It's more exciting to win a medal as a pair and this time it's a silver. Winning silver is fantastic," she said.