Mexico's Chinese diving coach, Ma Jin, is seen during a training session on Friday in Shanghai. Paola Espinosa became a student of the Chinese coach and rose to be a world champion after Ma went to coach the Mexican team nine years ago. Ma is now called "Chinese mother" by the Mexican divers. Cui Meng / China Daily

(From left to right) Australia's coach Tong Hui, Canada's Li Yihua and Japan's Su Wei, all Chinese, have brought advanced training methods to their respective teams and to improve their levels and challenge China's dominance in diving. Cui Meng / China Daily

There is a group of Chinese diving coaches who are working overseas and giving advanced training to improve those countries' diving levels to challenge China's dominance, Lei Lei writes from Shanghai.

As a diving powerhouse, China is not only a cradle of the world's elite divers, but also high-level diving coaches. With the help of those Chinese coaches, foreign divers have become more and more competitive on the world stage and some of them are now strong opponents of the Chinese.

Head coach of the Australian diving team, Tong Hui, is one of the most successful among them.

His diver Chantelle Newbery won the women's 10m platform gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, beating China's Lao Lishi into second. Four years later, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Matthew Mitcham won gold in the men's 10m platform, destroying the host's dream of a gold medal sweep.

As an athlete representing China, Tong won gold in the men's 10m platform at the 1985 and 1987 World Cups and finished fourth at the 1984 Olympic Games. He moved to Canada and Australia to coach after his retirement and was considered as "being instrumental in making Australia one of the top diving nations", that country's press said.

For the 2012 London Games, Tong's Australian stable of divers is more than capable of challenging the Chinese.

"I think my divers have the capabilities and strength to win medals at the London Games, but whether they can win or not depends on how they perform in the competition," said Tong.

Mexico's "diving queen", Paola Espinosa is also a student of a Chinese coach. After going to coach the Mexican team nine years ago, Ma Jin, Espinosa's coach, is now called "Chinese mother" by the Mexican divers.

With high-difficulty dives, Espinosa won the title at the Rome World Championships two years ago, edging China's Olympic champion Chen Ruolin, to become Mexico's first world champion in the sport.

Although experiencing a hard time at the start of her stint in Mexico, 42-year-old Ma has become acclimatized now and can speak fluent Spanish.

"There were not many people doing diving in Mexico before, but now the government has paid more and more attention to the sport and increased its the investment," said Ma. "The overall strength of the diving in Mexico is increasing, but the divers still have to improve the finer paints of their dives."

Due to Espinosa's triumph, Ma is considered a hero in Mexico and has even been feted by the Mexican president.

"I won't go back to work in China for at least 10 years," Ma said. "The pressure in China is much more high than in other countries. I'm not the kind of person who can be intense every day due to tough work. I enjoy life right now."

Due to injury, 24-year-old Espinosa failed to defend her title at the World Championships in Shanghai, but Ma still expects her to win a medal at the Olympics next year.

"I hope she can win a medal at the London Games. It's a goal of my work and also a dream of her's," Ma told China Daily. "When my divers compete with the Chinese, I only expect them to perform at their best, whether beating the Chinese or not. That's the real task of a coach."

Like Tong and Ma, some other Chinese coaches have also helped the development of diving in other countries.

Since 2000, Li Yihua has been working with the Canadian team. At the 2000 Sydney Games, her divers Emile Heymans and Anne Montminy won the women's 10m platform synchro silver medals.

"Although I have got Canadian citizenship, I feel at home while being in China," Li said while leading the Canadian team in Shanghai.

Besides those in western countries, coach Su Wei and Huang Qiang are working in Japan and Malaysia respectively.

As a Shanghai native, Su, who is known as Suei Mabuchi in Japan, is regarded as the most successful diving coach in that country with Ken Terauchi leading the charge.

Terauchi finished fifth in men's 10m platform at the Sydney Games and won the bronze in the 3m springboard at the 2001 World Championships.

He retired after the Beijing Olympic Games, where he finished 11th in the 3m springboard, but chose to come back about a year ago.

"With the help of my coach, I bounced back quickly from retirement," said Terauchi. "We know each other very well and we work together well. It is because of him that I was able to recover my form so soon."

After moving to Malaysia, Huang, the former synchro partner of China's Olympic and world champion Tian Liang, and his former coach Yang Zhuliang, helped the Malaysian team make great progress and the team is now ranked second in Asia - only behind powerhouse China.

"After working with Huang, my dives are more stable than before," said Malaysian diver Leong Mun Yee, the women's synchronized platform and springboard silver medalist at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

"His age is also close to us, and he always encourages us."

(China Daily 07/24/2011 page8)