On the 24th of March we were off to Qingdao, China for the first leg of the 2010 Diving World Series. The Australian team consisted of Hui (coach), Mary (team manager), Sharleen, Anabelle and me competing.
Qingdao is in the Shandong province and was where the sailing events at the 2008 Olympics were held. Qingdao is on the Yellow Sea, with a major seaport and naval base. The population of Qingdao is over 7 million. Qingdao is home of the most popular Chinese beer Tsingtao.
We stayed at the Qingdao Ocean Hotel, it was a nice hotel, except for those really really hard beds that they always have in China. Here is a photo of a very bored Anabelle doing a headstand of the bed. We went to the night markets one night, I got lots of DVD’s, Calvin Klein undies and a big Chinese flag sticker for my suitcase, it was fun going to the market, but it was really cold.
The pool in Qingdao was awesome, one of the best I have ever been too. The pool was brand new and from the outside looked like a clam shell.
On Saturday the 27th Sharleen and I had Women’s 3m Synchronised. Our synchro was good, and Sharleen dove beautifully, but I could have dove a bit better. We came 2nd behind the Russian pair, in 3rd place were the Americans.
On Sunday the 28th I had a very busy day. In the morning I had 3m individual, there was four in my semi and top three go to finals. I dove really well to come 3rd, and beat the silver medallist from World Championships to make the finals. In the afternoon I had the 3m finals, I did four good dives, but my last dive wasn’t very good so I finished in 6th place, but only 10 points off 3rd place. That evening I had Women’s 10m Synchronised event with Anabelle, it was our second competition together, we hadn’t practised much together as I had pulled my triceps earlier in the trip. Anabelle and I dove really well and had great synchro. We came 2nd, with the Chinese pair pipping us on the last dive to beat us by only 5 points, the Canadian pair came 3rd. After the event I was drug tested.
That night after we got back from the pool, we had a quick dinner and then walked down the street to a place called the Louvre, where we got a head and foot massage, we had to put on these lovely pyjama outfits before out massages. It was nice and relaxing.
On the Monday morning we went to some different markets, I bought ugg boots, socks and a little purse. At 12 noon we were off to the airport and on our way home!
All in all a successful trip, coming home with two silvers and some prize money to boot!
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