London, England – Reigning Olympic champion Chen Ruolin topped the preliminary round Wednesday in the women's 10-meter platform event.
Chen had 392.35 points, 43.35 more than Malaysia's Pamg Pandelela Rinong with Germany's Christin Steuer in third.
Chen already captured synchronized platform gold with Wang Hao in London and is the world champion in both platform events. She won both events at the 2008 Olympics.
Brittany Viola, the daughter of 1988 American League Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola, was among the 18 divers who qualified for the semifinals on Thursday morning. The final is Thursday night.
China has won gold in five of the six diving events at the London Olympics after going 7-for-8 in Beijing four years ago.
Russia's Ilya Zakharov was the first non-Chinese diver to win gold here when he beat Qin Kai and He Chong to win the men's 3-meter springboard on Tuesday, saying afterward he was pleased "that I managed to take a medal away from China."
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