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U.S. Divers Win Five Medals at ATT USA Diving Grand Prix
By Kevin Neuendorf // U.S. Olympic Committtee // May 14, 2007
Team USA captured five medals at the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex this past weekend. Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis, Ind.) and David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) won a pair of gold medals in the 10-meter and 10-meter synchro events on Sunday while Troy Dumais (Austin, Texas) bested all competitors in men’s 3-meter on Saturday. Rounding out the medal haul was Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) on 3-meter and 3-meter synchro with Jevon Tarantino (Boca Raton, Fla.) on Thursday.
"It's the best performance we've had in the last 20 years,” said USA Diving High Performance Director Ron O’Brien. “All of the hard work from the coaches and divers to put USA Diving back on top is working.
"The change in the way we select our teams and our attention to international standards has helped our productivity as our coaches and divers have improved their performances over the last two years."
In the individual 10-meter event, Finchum scored 497.40 to beat China’s Yang Liguang, who won took the silver at 489.00. 2007 World Championships silver medalist Zhou Luxin of China won the bronze with 446.50 points. Finchum’s gold came a week after winning a silver medal at the Canada Cup; prior to this month, Finchum had not won an international medal in an individual event since 2004.
Later in the day, he teamed up with Boudia for 434.64 points to claim the 10-meter synchro gold a week after taking silver together at the Canada Cup. The other U.S. team of Matt Bricker (Winter Park, Fla.) and Nick McCrory (Chapel Hill, N.C.) scored 419.52, which would have won a silver medal except for FINA regulations permitting countries to count only one synchronized team in the world standings.
Dumais’ 3-meter gold medal was his first international victory in an individual event since 2003, when he won the 3-meter title at the Canada Cup.
Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) and Jevon Tarantino (Boca Raton, Fla.) won the bronze medal in the men’s 3-meter synchronized diving event at the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex on Thursday night.
The duo, who won the U.S. national title last month, scored 388.38 points to claim their first international medal together. They have been training as a synchro team for only a month. China’s Luo Yutong and He Chong won the gold with 438.99 points, and Italy’s Tomasso Marconi and Nicola Marconi were second at 392.37. Colwill and Tarantino edged out the other American team for the final spot on the medal stand as Dumais and Mitch Richeson (Greenwood, Ind.) took fourth with 386.49 points.
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