March 19, 2007

Dumais, Richeson fourth in synchro prelims; Dunnichay, Ishimatsu also advance to synchro finals

MELBOURNE, Australia – Diving got underway at the FINA World Championships on Monday morning with preliminary rounds for men’s synchronized 3-meter and women’s synchronized 10-meter.

Both U.S. teams advanced to Monday evening’s finals, which feature the top 12 teams from the prelims.

Troy Dumais ( Austin, Texas) and Mitch Richeson ( Greenwood, Ind.) scored 403.17 points to finish fourth in the prelims, behind China’s Qin Kai and Wang Feng (453.96), Germany’s Tobias Schellenberg and Andreas Wels (414.72) and Russia’s Aleksandr Dobroskok and Gleb Galperin (411.96).

Dumais will be looking for his second consecutive World Championships medal in synchronized diving; he won a bronze with his brother Justin at the 2005 World Championships.

In the women’s competition, 14-year-olds Mary Beth Dunnichay ( Elwood, Ind.) and Haley Ishimatsu ( Seal Beach, Calif.) made their World Championship debut by placing ninth in the 10-meter synchro prelims. They scored 267.90 points to advance to Monday night’s finals. China’s Chen Ruolin and Jia Tong won the prelims with 329.94 points, followed by Australia’s Briony Cole and Melissa Wu with 326.22.

The men’s finals will begin at 5:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. Eastern time), with the women’s finals scheduled to start at 8:45 p.m.

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