(BEIJING, August 23) - China's young diver Huo Liang, 19, recovered from his eighth-place finish in the preliminary round to claim the top spot in the semifinal of the Men's 10m Platform, 17.75 points higher than the second-place finisher Matthew Mitcham of Australia. Huo's teammate, preliminary-round leader Zhou Luxin came in third with a total of 526.20. World No. 1 in Men's Platform Sascha Klein of Germany fell to the bottom of the field after he missed three of six dives.

　　Diving specialist in synchronized 10m Platform Huo Liang overwhelmed the field with six near-perfect dives, five of which were awarded more than 90 points. Huo Liang clinched the gold medal in the synchronized platform event with Lin Yue earlier in the Games.

　　World No. 3 Matthew Mitcham came back from a one year break to wrap up his semifinal with a 5255B, which got 106.40, the highest point of the semifinal. He won the first place in this year's FINA Diving Grand Prix in USA.

　　Huo's compatriot, Zhou Luxin, world No. 2 in this event, entered this event as a hot favorite. Zhou led the preliminary round. And he finished in first after the fifth round. But he missed his last dive because of bad entry, falling into third.

　　World No. 1 Sascha Klein, who is expected to be the biggest threat to China's aim for a gold sweep in all eight Diving events, failed to make the final because he missed three out of six dives.

　　Twelve of the eighteen divers qualified for the final, which takes place tonight at 8:00 p.m.

　　Men's 10m platform, 12 final qualifiers

　　1.Huo Liang 549.95

　　2 Australia -- Matthew Mitcham 532.20

　　3 China -- Zhou Luxin 526.20

　　4 Russia -- Gleb Galperin 508.95

　　5 US -- David Boudia 491.55

　　6 Australia -- Mathew Helm 485.20

　　7 US -- Thomas Finchum 474.95

　　8 Great Britain -- Thomas Daley 458.60

　　9 Mexico -- Rommel Pacheco 453.80

　　10 Germany -- Patrick Hausding 453.30

　　11 Cuba -- Oliva Jose Antonio Guerra 438.80

　　12 Columbia -- Juan Guillermo Uran 436.10