BARCELONA, July 26: Thomas Lurz chugged to another gold medal in open water, the sea no match for a 33-year-old man and his powerful strokes, the Rio Olympics still very much in the realm of possibility.

Si Yajie hurled herself off the 33-foot-tall tower just the latest prodigy in China’s diving empire.

It was a day for old and young at the world swimming championships.

Lurz led Germany to a dominating victory in the 5-kilometer team competition Thursday, more than a minute ahead of the next team to finish. He remains a formidable force in this bruising sport, with the next Olympics just three years away.

Si is just getting started. In her first major international competition, the 14-year-old edged two-time Olympic gold medalist and defending world champion Chen Ruolin on the 10-meter platform at Montjuic Municipal Pool.

The facility, located at the edge of a cliff that overlooks the sprawling city below, was the site of diving at the 1992 Olympics. How appropriate. Si looked as though she’s on her way to going for gold at the 2016 Games, bouncing back from a slight wobble on her fourth dive to beat her countrywoman — one of the sport’s biggest stars.

Ruolin settled for the silver, and no one else was even close. That’s the way it goes in diving, which is essentially the Chinese and everyone else. Si gave her country its sixth gold in seven events on the mountain.

Ditto for synchronized swimming. Russia made it five-for-five as Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko easily won the duet, adding to their victory in the duet technical. Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen of China earned the silver, while Spain’s Ona Carbonell and Margalida Crespi Jaume settled for bronze.

Romashina has now won four golds in Barcelona and 14 in her world championship career. Russia is heavily favored to take the final two synchro events and duplicate its sweep at the Shanghai worlds in 2011.

Lurz knows there will come a time when he has to get on with life after swimming. Yet the way things are going, he sees no need to trade his swimsuit for a business suit.

The German team, which also included Christian Reichert and Isabelle Harle, completed two laps around the Barcelona harbor course in 52 minutes, 54.9 seconds. They went out fourth in the staggered start, 4 minutes behind Russia in the leadoff spot, but passed the Russians as well as New Zealand and Italy to touch ahead of everybody, giving Lurz his sixth career gold at worlds.

Silver medalist Greece wasn’t even close, taking second in 54:03.3. Lurz won his third medal of these championships and first gold. If he needs any addition motivation for Rio, he has yet to win an Olympic gold, settling for bronze in Beijing and a silver in London.

Ruolin hasn’t given up on competing in her third Olympics, though the 21-year-old is already at an age when China begins to phase out its top female divers in favor of younger competitors whose smaller, more flexible bodies are better equipped to keep bringing home gold medals.

Si and Chen were tied for first place after their second and third dives, but Chen struggled on her fourth attempt — a back 3{ somersault — and that was all the edge the youngster needed. She pulled slightly ahead, nailed her final dive and finished with 392.15 points. Her teammate totaled 388.70, while Iuliia Prokopchuk of Ukraine took bronze with 358.40.

American Tori Lamp led after the first round but missed badly on her third and fourth dives, knocking her back to 10th.

The US team, which is rebuilding after winning four diving medals in London, has yet to reach the podium in Barcelona. In fact, the Americans have only one medal overall — Anderson’s open-water gold — through the first six days of competition.

That should begin to change Sunday when the pool swimming events get underway. Even without Michael Phelps, the US is expected to dominate with a star-studded team led by Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte.

Results: 5K team event: 1. Germany (Christian Reichert, Thomas Lurz, Isabelle Harle), 52:54.9, 2. Greece (Spyridon Gianniotis, Antonios Fokaidis, Kalliopi Araouzou), 54:03.3, 3. Brazil (Allan Do Carmo, Samuel De Bona, Poliana Okimoto), 54:03.5, 4. Australia (Simon Huitenga, Jarrod Poort, Melissa Gorman), 54:16.1, 5. Italy (Simone Ercoli, Luca Ferretti, Rachele Bruni), 54:34.0, 6. United States (Andrew Gemmell, Sean Ryan, Haley Anderson), 54:44.7, 7. France (Damien Cattin-Vidal, Bertrand Venturi, Aurelie Muller), 55:26.3, 8. Russia (Evegenii Drattcev, Kirill Abrosimov, Elizaveta Gorshkova), 56:08.7, 9. Hungary (Mark Papp, Eva Risztov, Anna Olasz), 56:09.4, 10. New Zealand (Kane Radford, Cara Baker, Phillip Ryan), 56:12.0.

Diving: Women’s 10-metre platform final: 1. Si Yajie, China, 392.15 points, 2. Chen Ruolin, China, 388.70, 3. Iuliia Prokopchuk, Ukraine, 358.40, 4. Sarah Barrow, Britain, 346.45, 5. Maria Kurjo, Germany, 336.55, 6. Pandelela Rinong Pamg, Malaysia, 334.55, 7. Maria Betancourt, Venezuela, 328.35, 8. Roseline Filion, Canada, 316.70, 9. Tonia Couch, Britain, 311.00, 10. Victoria Lamp, United States, 301.20, 11. Alejandra Orozco, Mexico, 298.15, 12. Laura Marino, France, 289.70.

Synchronised swimming: Duet free: 1. Russia (Svetlana Kolesnichenko and Svetlana Romashina), 97.680 points, 2. China (Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen), 95.350, 3. Spain (Ona Carbonell and Margalida Crespi), 94.990, 4. Ukraine (Lolita Ananasova and Anna Voloshyna), 92.620, 5. Japan (Yumi Adachi and Yukiko Inui), 91.620, 6. Italy (Linda Cerruti and Costanza Ferro), 89.170, 7. Greece (Evangelia Platanioti and Despoina Solomou), 87.980, 8. Canada (Emilia Kopcik and Stephanie Leclair), 87.370, 9. Britain (Olivia Federici and Jenna Randall), 87.180, 10. France (Laura Auge and Margaux Chretien), 86.620.—AP