DUMAIS ADVANCES TO SEMIFINALS

August 23, 2004

ATHENS, Greece – Troy Dumais had two goals in mind as he began competition on Monday afternoon in the men’s 3-meter springboard preliminary round. Those goals were to rebound from a disappointing finish in the men’s 3-meter synchronized springboard and to have six solid dives to advance to the semifinal round. He successfully reached those goals.
       
Dumais (Ventura, Calif.) finished fifth out of 32 divers with a total score of 452.76 points on six dives. The top 18 divers from the preliminary round advance to the semifinals with preliminary scores being carried over to the semifinals.
       
“My goal was of course rebounding from the synchro and moving on and I did that today,” Dumais said. “My other goal was six solid dives and just land on your head. Whatever the judges give me is what the judges give me. I was pleased with the six dives that I did. It is not good enough but it will do for right now.”
       
Dumais’ highest scored dive was in Rd. 2 when he collected 80.58 points for his forward 2 1⁄2 with two twists. He will now have five dives from different groups with the total degree of difficulty not exceeding 9.5 for the semifinal round. The top 12 after semifinals (cumulative point totals from preliminaries and semifinal dives) will advance to the final round. At that point the preliminary scores will be dropped but the semifinal scores will carry over.
       
For the final round, Dumais will replace is inward 2 1⁄2 with an inward 3 1⁄2 carrying a difficulty of 3.4.
       
“The only reason I didn’t do it in prelims is because it is a long contest and it is a leg dive,” Dumais said. “To be honest I would have probably handled it really well today because I was feeling good but you never know and the sheets have to be turned in really early. I can do a really good inward but I will do this as my juice it up dive in finals.”
       
For coach Ken Armstrong (Conroe, Texas) he feels confident in the position Dumais is heading into the semifinals.
       
“Troy did a great job and is right where we want to be,” Armstrong said. “He has really, really good required dives for semifinals so I am real confident with that. His optional list is great and we are adding an inward 3 1⁄2 which will up his DD (degree difficulty) for the finals.”
       
Justin Wilcock (Smithfield, Utah), who suffered a fracture in his lower back the day after trials while working out in the weight room, didn’t even think he would compete after his morning's workout. He was in so much pain that he actually had withdrawn from competition, for at least 15 minutes that is.
       
“This morning he came up with tears in his eyes saying I can’t do this,” Armstrong said. “So I had to pull his sheet and about 15 minutes later he said no, this is the Olympics I have to try. He did a great job and I am sorry for him because he has worked so hard for this. Even though he was in quite a bit of pain he sucked it up and went in and did the job. I am extremely proud of him.”
       
“This morning it was pretty bad and I didn’t know if I would be able to get up there and do my dives,” Wilcock said. “I made the decision that I wasn’t going to dive but as I was walking out to the bus I just felt like I needed to at least attempt it and leave nothing on the table. I didn’t want to have any regrets. So I came back in and I think the adrenaline started flowing and I was able to do a few dives before competition so I said why not. This has been a dream of mine to get this far and to not go for it would be a shame. So with Kenny’s encouragement I put my name back on the list and said I was going to give it my all and I did.”
       
Wilcock started off good and was thinking that he might have it in him to pull it out.
       
“His first dive was the best he has moved since the trials,” Armstrong said. “I thought maybe he was going to get through it alright because he has not moved liked that and it looked like his old self. But if you haven’t done a dive in more than a month, you are not going to find the bottoms very easily.”
       
“It has been a great experience and being in this atmosphere has been amazing,” Wilcock said. “I am planning on sticking around another four years and competing in Beijing. This is very valuable experience for that and I know it can’t get any worse. When I stand up on the board in Beijing I will be there with a little bit more fire and determination to do well.”
       
Dumais will return to the pool for semifinals at 12:00 at the Olympic Aquatic Centre. Finals will begin at 9:00 p.m.

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