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USA DIVING NEWS |  |
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March 20, 2007 Wilkinson escapes elimination, finishes 16th in prelims at World Championships MELBOURNE, Australia – Laura Wilkinson will get a another chance to defend her world championship after all. Early into the preliminaries at the World Championships, Wilkinson dug herself into a hole and appeared in danger of failing to advance to the semifinals. She came through when it mattered most and ended up 16 th with 288.00 points. Only the top 18 divers advance to the semifinals. She was third after the first round, but badly missed her inward 3 ½ in the second round, scoring 16 points and falling to 24th place. With one round to go, she was in 22nd. Wilkinson, the final competitor of the evening, needed to score 78.65 points on her final dive in order to advance to Wednesday’s semis. She ended up with 86.70 points, earning a 9.0 and five 8.5s, as the crowd cheered her on. She’ll get to wipe the slate clean in the semifinals, as the scores from the preliminaries do not carry over. China’s Chen Roulin posted the top score of the prelims, earning 400.80 points. Mexico’s Paola Espinosa was second at 367.15. Wilkinson’s teammate, Haley Ishimatsu was 29th at 187.25. The women’s 10-meter semifinals are set to follow Wednesday’s men’s 1-meter semis, which begin at 10 a.m. Chris Colwill finished fourth in the prelims to advance to the semifinal round. The finals for the men’s 1-meter and women’s 10-meter will be held Wednesday evening. |
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