July 26, 2007

Pan Am Games: Dumais, Dunnichay/Ishimatsu claim bronze 
 
RIO DE JANEIRO – The U.S. added two more diving medals to its Pan American Games count after picking up two bronze medals at Parque Aquatico on Thursday.

Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) finished third with 484.25 points in the men’s 3-meter competition, and Haley Ishimatsu (Seal Beach, Calif.) and Mary Beth Dunnichay (Elwood, Ind.) scored 297.54 points to take third in women’s synchronized 10-meter. The medals were the second of the Games for Dumais and Ishimatsu, who won gold and silver, respectively, on Wednesday.

The men’s 3-meter competition featured three of the top five divers in the world, and those three athletes dominated the meet. In the end, Canada’s Alexandre Despatie repeated as the Pan Am Games champion with 503.65 points, while Brazil’s Cesar Castro scored 492.70 points to edge out Dumais for silver.

“The competition was phenomenal. You’ve got three of the best divers in the world here, and we were together dive for dive. I had a lot of fun,” said Dumais, who won gold in 3-meter synchro yesterday.

Despatie was 15 points up with one round to go, but only five points separated Dumais and Castro heading into the final dives. The two performed the same dive – a reverse 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists – but Castro, behind the cheers of a loud Brazilian crowd, had the edge and received three 9s from the judges, while Dumais received 8s and 8.5s.

Ishimatsu and Dunnichay’s bronze was their fourth international medal this year. Canadians Emilie Heymans and Marie-Eve Marleau won the gold with 327.30 points, edging out the Mexican team of Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz, who took silver at 325.14.

“Some of our dives were good, some not so good, but if this can get us a bronze medal, then we know that when we do our best, it’ll get even better,” said Ishimatsu, who won the silver in Wednesday’s individual 10-meter contest.

Mitch Richeson (Greenwood, Ind.), who won gold with Dumais on Wednesday, also competed in Thursday’s 3-meter contest and finished seventh with 429.80 points.

With two medals in the 2007 Games, Dumais now has five career Pan Am Games diving medals, ranking fourth behind Mexico’s Fernando Platas (seven), and USA’s Greg Louganis (six) and Despatie (six). Dumais has a gold and bronze in 3-meter synchro and three bronze on 3-meter

Diving competition continues Friday at 1:30 p.m. local time with women’s 3-meter and men’s synchronized 10-meter finals. David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) and Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis, Ind.) will team up in the synchro contest, and Ariel Rittenhouse (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Kelci Bryant (Chatham, Ill.) will dive on 3-meter.

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