September 1 , 2007

Boudia and Finchum win World Series bronze in World Championships rematch  

SHEFFIELD, England – David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) and Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis, Ind.) won the bronze medal in the men’s synchronized 10-meter contest in the first leg of the FINA Diving World Series, a three-week event that features the top divers from the 2007 World Championships.

Boudia and Finchum scored 455.22 points to win the bronze medal in what was essentially a rematch of the World Championships, where the teens also won bronze back in March. World champions Lin Yue and Huo Liang of China once again won gold with 485.64 points at the World Series, and Russia’s Gleb Galperin and Dmitriy Dobroskok, silver medalists at the World Championships, took the silver with 463.08 points.

The World Series is a new FINA event that spans three continents in three weeks, with contests scheduled in Mexico and China later this month. The top eight divers on individual Olympic events and the top six synchronized teams from the World Championships were invited to participate in the World Series.

Boudia and Finchum's bronze medal marked the 10th consecutive international event in which they have won a medal. The Americans were 14 points behind the Russians heading into the fifth round, when Boudia and Finchum nailed their inward 3 ½ for 9s and 9.5s, while the Russians made some mistakes on their reverse 3 ½ to open the door and put the U.S. within 2.16 points heading into the final round. Both teams performed a back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists in the last round, and Galperin and Dobroskok received slightly higher marks to maintain their silver medal spot.

The results in the men’s 3-meter contest also were identical to the World Championships, as the participants finished in the same order as they did in Melbourne. China’s Qin Kai scored 517.65 for the gold, with Canada’s Alexandre Despatie taking silver with 496.75 points and Russia’s Dmitry Sautin finishing third with 483.50 points. USA’s Troy Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) scored 414.60 points to finish sixth, one spot higher than he did at Worlds, although Russia’s Aleksandr Dobroskok, who was fifth at Worlds, did not participate in the World Series.

China ’s Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing repeated their World Championships performance with a gold in the women’s 3-meter synchro contest, scoring 340.20 points to finish ahead of Russia’s Anastasia Pozdnyakova and Yulia Pakhalina, who were second at 306.54. Germany’s Katja Dieckow and Nora Subschinksi were third at 286.20. The United States did not participate in this event.

China also took the top two spots on women’s 10-meter, although the results from Worlds were reversed. World silver medalist Chen Roulin dominated at the World Series, scoring 433.30 points to overtake teammate and 2007 world champion Wang Xin, who won the World Series silver with 388.00 points. Canada’s Emilie Heymans was third at 356.55. The USA did not have any divers participate in this event.

The England portion of the World Series wraps up Sunday with Dumais and Mitch Richeson (Greenwood, Ind.) in men’s 3-meter synchro and Nancilea Foster (Spring, Texas) in the women’s 3-meter event. Men’s 10-meter and women’s 10-meter synchro also will be contested Sunday.

After that, the divers head to Mexico City for the next leg of World Series competition, to be held September 7-8. A final competition will be held in China on September 15-16.

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