Chen Ruolin wins gold in women's 10m platform

London: Chen Ruolin of China won the women's 10-meter platform title at the London Olympics on Thursday night, easily defending her title from Beijing by a 55.80-point margin.

Chen totaled 422.30 points during the five-dive final. She earlier won gold in the 10-meter synchronized and swept the platform events for the second consecutive games.

Chen was dominant through all three rounds of the competition. She finished the morning semifinal with a 47.35-point lead, although scores from the earlier rounds didn't carry over.

Chen earned 9.0s for her last dive, a back 2 1/2 somersault with 1 1/2 twists pike. She got out of the pool, took her traditional bow, and walked away without waiting for her scores.

When Chen was introduced as the Olympic champion, she walked around the podium and shook hands with the other medalists before taking the top position.

China has won six of seven diving gold medals so far with only the men's platform remaining. The diving superpower was upset by Russia in the men's 3-meter springboard, spoiling its bid to sweep all eight diving golds in London.

Brittany Broben, a 16-year-old from Australia competing in her first Olympics, took the silver at 366.50. She jumped up and down and ran to hug her coach after realizing she had earned a medal.

Pandelela Pamg of Malaysia won the bronze at 359.20 for her country's first Olympic medal in diving.

Pamg has been busy in London. She took eighth in 3-meter springboard synchro and seventh in 10-meter synchro.

Pamg didn't advance out of the 10-meter preliminaries four years ago in Beijing. At the 2009 world meet, she and her partner won bronze in the synchro event, becoming the first Malaysians to win a world medal.

Melissa Wu of Australia finished fourth at 358.10.

Chen's teammate, Hu Yudan, rallied from 12th after four dives to finish ninth. The 16-year-old, who is 61 days younger than Broben, finished second at last year's world championships.

Paola Espinosa was third after four dives, but she botched her final dive to fall out of medal contention after earning silver in 10-meter synchro at her third Olympics.