February 19, 2008

Colwill/Tarantino place sixth; Wilkinson, Ishimatsu advance to women's 10-meter semifinals

BEIJING –Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) and Jevon Tarantino (Boca Raton, Fla.) placed sixth in the men’s synchronized 3-meter final on Tuesday, the opening day of the Good Luck Beijing/FINA Diving World Cup.

The pair scored scored 404.64 points in their first World competition after competing in three Grand Prix meets last year. China’s Wang Feng and Qin Kai scored 462.12 points for the men’s 3-meter synchro gold, and Russia’s Yuriy Kunakov and Dmitry Sautin took silver at 418.65.

Tuesday’s competition also included women’s 10-meter preliminaries, with Laura Wilkinson (Spring, Texas) and Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) placing sixth and 13th, respectively, to advance to the semifinals, set for Wednesday morning (late Tuesday in the United States).

Wilkinson scored 343.60 points, and Ishimatsu finished with 321.05 points. China’s Chen Ruolin topped the preliminary field with 410.10 points, with Wang Xin, also of China, taking second at 382.35.

Ishimatsu’s top-18 finish guarantees the United States a second spot in women’s 10-meter for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Wilkinson had already secured one spot for the U.S. as a result of her fourth-place showing at last year’s World Championships (Note that the spots earned are for the countries, not the divers themselves.).

The 10-meter semifinals begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday (9 p.m. Tuesday, EST). The top 12 in the semis will advance to the finals, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday (6 a.m., Wednesday, EST).

Colwill will dive again Wednesday in the men’s individual 3-meter preliminaries, which begin at 2 p.m. (1 a.m. EST). Two-time Olympian Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) also will dive in that event.

The World Cup continues through February 24.

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