February 20, 2008

Ishimatsu 8th, Wilkinson 12th in 10-meter finals; Dumais, Colwill advance to 3-meter semis

BEIJING – Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) finished eighth in the women’s 10-meter finals at the Good Luck Beijing/FINA Diving World Cup on Wednesday, with teammate Laura Wilkinson (Spring, Texas) placing 12th.

Ishimatsu scored 321.15 points in the finals, highlighted by an 83.30-point effort on her back 2 ½ somersault with 1 ½ twists in the last round. It was the same dive that landed her in the finals, as she entered the last round of the semifinals in 18 th place but scored 86.70 points on her final dive to move up to 12 th, good for the last spot in the finals.

Wilkinson finished the finals with 306.00 points. Although she missed her reverse 3 ½ in the fourth round, she came back strong in the fifth round to score 76.50 points on her back 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists.

China claimed the top two spots, as Chen Ruolin won gold with 449.35 points and Wang Xin took silver at 405.00. Mexico’s Paola Espinosa scored 396.35 for bronze.

In men’s 3-meter preliminary action, Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) scored 445.90 points for sixth and Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) placed 15 th with 407.95 to move into the semifinal round, which begins at 10 a.m. Thursday (9 p.m. EST Wednesday). The top 12 semifinalists will advance to the Thursday evening finals.

By placing in the top 18, Colwill secured another Olympic berth for the U.S. in the 2008 Olympic Games. The top 18 divers earn berths for their federations (not the divers themselves), unless that diver already earned a spot at the 2007 World Championships or if the federation had already secured the maximum two spots per individual event. Dumais placed seventh at the 2007 World Championships to give the U.S. one spot.

The U.S. now has earned eight of a possible 12 Olympic berths. It can pick up another one Thursday when Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay (Elwood, Ind.) compete in the women’s synchronized 10-meter event. They’ll need to finish among the top four teams other than Australia, Canada, China and Germany, as those countries have already qualified.

The U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Diving are set for June 18-22 in Indianapolis, with a team selection camp to follow July 2-6 in Knoxville, Tenn.

The World Cup continues through February 24.

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