Polished youngster Yuan waiting in the wings to take over from Guo

Diving diva Guo Jingjing is still the hottest topic in the sport in China, not only because of stories about her personal life but also because of her continued dominance in the springboard.

At the National Games last month in Jiangsu, Guo (above) completed a clean sweep of the one-metre and three-metre springboard. Add to that her other gold medals at the world championships in July and in Athens, and the 24-year-old remains favourite for gold in 2008.

But while no one doubts Guo's ability, an intriguing group of youngsters emerged at the National Games and it seems that, sooner or later, they will overtake their seniors. Time will tell whether they will have displaced Guo by 2008.

Yuan Peilin, of Hubei, who is just 14, is one of those promising divers and should become another force to be reckoned with, helping to continue China's supremacy in the event for the next decade.

Such is her growing stature that when Liu Peng, who, as director of the State Sports General Administration, is the most senior official in charge of sport in China, visited the Chinese diving camp in Macau at the East Asian Games, Yuan was introduced to him. Yuan has already been nicknamed 'Junior Gao Min', not only because of her physical resemblance to Gao, but also because of her great potential.

Gao dominated the international diving scene from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. She won the three-metre springboard at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics and was world springboard diver of the year from 1986 to 1992.