Olympics-Diving-China's Quan advances to women's 10m platform finals in first place

By Yuki Nitta

TOKYO (Reuters) - Quan Hongchan of China advanced to the women's 10 metre platform diving finals in first place after a series of strong dives at the Tokyo Games on Thursday, while her compatriot Chen Yuxi came a close second.

Quan, 14, is the youngest athlete of the Chinese team at the Tokyo Games.

After finishing second in the preliminaries on Wednesday, Quan took an early lead in the semi-finals, performing an impressive dive and earning 85.50 points in the first round. She secured her top spot throughout the competition, finishing with 415.65 points.

She could become the second youngest female to win gold in the event after her compatriot Fu Mingxia took the title at the age of 13 at the Barcelona Games in 1992.

Chen Yuxi, 15, came second with 407.75 points.

United State's Delaney Schnell, who won the silver in the synchronised 10m platform in Tokyo, finished third with 342.75, followed by Gabriela Agundez Garcia of Mexico.

Three-time Olympic medalist Meaghan Benfeito of Canada struggled to get her rhythm after performing a rough dive in her first attempt, and finished 13th.

The top-scoring 12 divers out the 18 competing have qualified for the finals, which will take place later on Thursday.

(Reporting by Yuki Nitta; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)