PARIS, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — Chinese diving legend Quan Hongchan led from the start to win her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women’s 10m platform at Paris 2024 on Tuesday. Her multiple new records in athletics, cycling and sport climbing reflected the Olympics’ slogan of “Faster.”

Quan, 17, scored a total of 425.60 points and placed first on four of the five dives, with only her third-round dive coming in second out of 12 finalists. She scored a perfect 90 on her first dive.

“I’m so happy for the victory,” Quan said, breaking down in tears as she hugged her coach, former Olympic champion Chen Ruolin, after her final dive. “The past three years have been really tough for me, and I can’t tell you how tough it is here in a few minutes.”

Chinese teammate Chen Yuxi won the silver medal with 420.70 points, repeating her podium finish at Tokyo 2020. DPR Korea’s Kim Mi Rae won the bronze medal with 372.10 points.

This is Quan’s second gold medal in Paris after winning the synchronised 10m platform event alongside Chen last Wednesday. China’s diving team has now claimed all five gold medals at the Games and has three more to go.

Elsewhere in Tahiti, the Olympic surfing competition reached its final day after a three-day hiatus due to poor wave conditions. French surfer and Tahitian native Kauli Vaast triumphed in the men’s final, while Caroline Marks maintained the US monopoly on the women’s Olympic title by improving from her fourth-place finish at Tokyo 2020.

Faster was the watchword of the day in many events, with last year’s champions the Netherlands winning their second world record gold medal in the men’s cycling team sprint event on Tuesday night, beating Britain in the final.

Dutch Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland completed all three laps of the 250-meter track in 40.949 seconds, becoming the first race to dip below 41 seconds.

Australia also set a new world record in the men’s team pursuit heat with a time of 3min 40.73sec, taking on Britain in the final at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s quartet surprised on Tuesday by setting a new national record of 4:04.679 in the women’s team pursuit cycling event.

In sport climbing, Sam Watson of the United States clocked a 4.91sec start in the qualifying phase and improved his world record by 4.79sec to a new 4.75 in the heats. The feat was the third time the 18-year-old American has broken the men’s speed world record this year. He previously set two records at a World Cup meet in China in April.

“I want to push the times and get under 4.5 seconds. I want to be the best athlete and continue to push the boundaries. That’s who I’ve always been in this sport and that’s who I’ll always be,” Watson said after the qualifying round.

China’s Wu Peng also managed to qualify for the final round of the speed competition on Tuesday with a time of 5.00 seconds in the heats.

Two new Olympic records were set at the Stade de France on Tuesday night. The United States’ Cole Hocker won the men’s 1500 metres in a stunning three minutes, 27.65 seconds, beating the previous Olympic record of 3:28.32 set by Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigsten at the Tokyo Games three years ago.

Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi won the gold medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with a time of 8 minutes and 52.76 seconds, breaking the previous Olympic record of 8:58.81 set by Russia’s Gulnara Samitova-Galkina at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

As the canoe sprint events got underway on Tuesday, China’s Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya, who won the women’s canoe double 500m title at the Tokyo Olympics, comfortably advanced to the semi-finals of the event at the Vaires-sur-Marne Marine Stadium. In the men’s canoe double 500m, China’s Liu Hao and Ji Bowen set an Olympic record of 1:37.40 to sail through to the semi-finals.

In the men’s team table tennis competition, last year’s champions China beat India 3-0 to reach the quarterfinals. Five-time Olympic gold medalist Ma Long is making his fourth Olympic appearance, while Japan’s men’s team swept Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

In volleyball, Turkey defeated China in a thrilling five-set match in which Melissa Teresa Vargas scored 42 points to lead her team to a hard-fought 23-25, 25-21, 26-24, 21-25, 15-12 victory. Last year’s champions, the USA, joined Turkey, Italy and Brazil in the women’s volleyball semifinals by beating Poland 3-0.

Cuban Mijain Lopez Nunez became the first person to win five Olympic gold medals in the men’s Greco-Roman wrestling 130kg final by defeating Chilean Yasmani Acosta Fernandez 6-0.

At the end of the 11th day in Paris, the USA was at the top of the medal standings with 24 gold, 31 silver and 31 bronze, followed by China with 22-21-16 and Australia with 14-12-9.