German duo wins platform

BARCELONA, Spain - German pair Sascha Klein and Patrick Hausding won the gold medal in the men's synchronized 10-meter platform diving yesterday, bringing an end to China's run of three consecutive titles at the swimming world championships.

The silver medalists from the 2011 worlds and 2008 Olympics proved to be the most consistent twosome through all six rounds to win the tight final with a score of 461.46 points.

Russian duo Victor Minibaev and Artem Chesakov took silver with 445.95, while Olympic champions Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan, of China, earned bronze with 445.56.

"It feels just awesome to be here right now," Hausding said. "I was dreaming about being a world champion all my diving life and today it finally happened. Nobody can take that away from me. It's just positive feelings and positive motivation for the next two or three years until the Rio [de Janeiro Olympics]."

Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina were flawless to the tune of a Michael Jackson tribute, winning the duet technical with 97.300 points. Romashina opened the synchro competition Saturday by winning the solo technical.

Chinese twins Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen took silver with 94.900, and Ona Carbonell and Margalida Crespi gave Spain its second consecutive bronze with 93.800.

Germany's feat came 1 day after American swimmer Haley Anderson, a recent graduate of the University of Southern California, won the first gold medal of the championships in the 5-kilometer open water and USC-based Oussama Mellouli, of Tunisia, won the men's event.

Anderson edged Poliana Okimoto of Brazil by 0.02 seconds, finishing in 56 minutes, 34.2 seconds. Mellouli won in 53 minutes, 30.4 seconds.

This is the first time in more than a decade that Michael Phelps won't be competing at the championships, which run through Aug. 4 .

Instead, the big names include Americans Ryan Lochte and Missy Franklin, Sun Yang and Yi Shiwen of China, Chad le Clos of South Africa, and 16-year-old Ruta Meilutyte, of Lithuania.