March 19, 2007

Dumais, Richeson narrowly miss the podium in 3-meter synchro finals; Dunnichay, Ishimatsu take fifth in 10-meter synchro

MELBOURNE, Australia – MELBOURNE, Australia – Team USA picked up a pair of top five finishes in synchronized diving on the first day of competition at the FINA World Championships.

Troy Dumais and Mitch Richeson finished fourth in the men’s 3-meter event, and Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay were fifth in the women’s 10-meter synchro contest. China won both golds.

In the men’s competition, Qin Kai and Wang Feng scored 458.76 points to cruise to a 40-point victory over Canadians Alexandre Despatie and Arturo Miranda (418.92). Dumais and Richeson missed the podium by just three-tenths of a point, scoring 414.24 points to narrowly finish behind the German team of Tobias Schellenberg and Andreas Wels.

Chen Roulin and Jia Tong also had a dominating performance on the women’s side, outdistancing silver medalists Briony Cole and Melissa Wu of Australia, 361.32-324.00. The German team of Nora Subschinski and Annett Gamm was third at 306.63. Dunnichay and Ishimatsu scored 298.80 to finish fifth in their World Championship debut.

Despite not earning a medal, Dumais and Richeson secured the U.S. a spot in the men’s 3-meter synchro competition for the 2008 Olympic Games. The top three teams (excluding China, which receives an automatic bid as the host) earned spots for their countries for the Games.

“That was our main goal – to bring back that Olympic spot for the U.S. Now we can just focus on training and not have to worry about having to qualify at the World Cup (next February),” Richeson said. “We gave it everything we had. We can’t control what the judges do, and I have no regrets.”

Dumais and Richeson also were fourth in the Monday morning prelims but improved their score by nearly 14 points in the finals despite an interruption a little more than halfway through the contest.

Midway through the fourth round, there was a 20-minute delay when the lights went out as Italy’s Nicola and Tommaso Marconi were waiting to start their dive. Richeson and Dumais followed the Italians in the dive order, but were unaffected by the delay. Russians Gleb Galperin and Aleksandr Dobroskok, who were leading after three rounds, however, failed two of their final dives and finished 12th.

On the women’s side, Dunnichay and Ishimatsu were tied for 11 th after two rounds, but turned in the third-best dive in round four and had the fourth-best dive in the fifth round to move into fifth in the final standings.

“I’m happy, and I’m pleased,” said Dunnichay, 14. “We just wanted to come out and dive our best.”

For Ishimatsu, also 14, it was a chance to get some of the jitters out as she prepares to compete in Tuesday’s women’s 10-meter prelims.

“I was a lot more relaxed than I thought I’d be. I think this will help me be a lot more comfortable out there (tomorrow) now than I’m used to it,” Ishimatsu said.

Defending world champion Laura Wilkinson will join Ishimatsu in the women’s 10-meter prelims. Also competing Tuesday are Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino ( Boca Raton, Fla.) in the men’s 1-meter prelims.

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