USA Diving: August 2008 Archives

Ventura's Troy Dumais' quest for an Olympic medal ended with another sixth-place finish in the 3-meter springboard finals.
This was his third Olympics. He finished fourth in 3-meter synchronized in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. He was sixth three times, in 3-meter springboard in 2000 and 2004 and in 3-meter synchronized in 2004 in Athens.
"I went after everything. I didn't hold anything back. I wasn't going to be tentative," said Dumais, a graduate of Buena High School. "My fifth dive is the only thing that bothered me tonight. I've trained really, really hard the past four years, and it's paid off with huge dividends. I did everything I could."
China won its sixth diving gold in six events as He Chong dominated the field with 572.90 points. Canada's Alexandre Despatie scored 536.65 points for silver, just ahead of China's Qin Kai, who won bronze at 530.10.
Dumais earned mark of 9.0 or better on four of his six dives, including earning 91.80 points with his third round dive. His fifth round dive only earned him 57.75 points.

Ventura's Troy Dumais advanced to the 3-meter springboard semifinals in diving at the Olympics, but he is 12th out of the 18 who moved on.
His United States teammate Chris Colwill is seventh after the preliminary round.
Dumais had two high-scoring dives, but his three other dives were executed below expectations.
He had the second highest scoring dives in the second and third rounds, but was in last place after a poorly executed first dive. His scored poorly on his fifth and last dive in preliminaries.
"I didn't perform my dives the way I have the past six or seven weeks. I don't want to have an off day, but I'll change the channel and regroup," Dumais said.
Colwill rallied with his last three dives in preliminaries and was able to erase a slow start.
"I was definitely a little nervous on that first dive, but I felt confident. I definitely could have done a little better, but I can't complain," Colwill said.

Chris Colwill and Jevon Tarantino finished fourth in the 3-meter synchronized springboard event on Wednesday, narrowly missing a medal for the United States.
China won another gold, with Russia winning the silver and Ukraine claiming bronze.
Wang Feng and Qin Kai scored 469.08 points to win China's fourth gold in diving. Russia's Dmitry Sautin and Yuriy Kunakov finished a distant second at 421.98. Illya Kvasha and Oleksiy Prygorov of Ukraine edged the U.S. team for the bronze with 415.05 points.
"I'm a little discouraged, but at the same time, this has been an awesome experience," Tarantino said. "It was a great competition, and we did everything we could. I just went a little short of vertical on that last dive, and I think that was just me wanting it so much."
Diving competition takes a break Thursday and resumes Friday with women's 3-meter preliminaries.

Haley Ishimatsu of Seal Beach and Mary Beth Dunnichay saved their best dive for last, but it wasn't enough to overtake the strong team from China.
China won its third gold medal in diving. The team of Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin finished with 363.54 points. Australia's Briony Cole and Melissa Wu took the silver with 335.16 points, and Mexico's Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz scored 330.06 for bronze.
Ishimatsu and Dunnichay, the youngest members of the United States team at 15, scored 80.58 points on their final dive to push them to fifth in the final standings with 309.12 points.
"We just stayed calm. The last time we were here (for the World Cup in February), we did that last dive for 80 points, so we knew we could do it," Dunnichay said.
Ishimatsu will dive again next week in the individual 10-meter contest, which begins Aug. 20.
Synchronized diving competition wraps up Wednesday with Chris Colwill of Brandon, Fla. and Jevon Tarantino of Boca Raton, Fla. in the men's synchronized 3-meter contest.

Kelci Bryant and Ariel Rittenhouse, the first women from the United States to compete in 3-meter synchronized diving in the Olympics, finished fourth Sunday at the National Aquatics Center in Beijing.
Bryant and Rittenhouse were in medal contention until the last dive of the meet. They finished 4.5 points behind the German team of Heike Fischer and Ditte Kotzian.
"I never look at the scores, and she never lets it out," said Rittenhouse, 17, form Santa Cruz. "It's tough to be so close, but it makes us want to come back for more in 2012."
The United States did not compete in women's 3-meter springboard in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.
China's Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia scored 343.50 points for gold, and Russia's Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova were second at 323.61.
"We're disappointed, but we're young," said Bryant, 19, from Chatham, Ill. "This is our first time at the Olympics. We could have done better, but we'll come back in 2012."
Diving competition continues Monday with David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) and Thomas Finchum (Indianapolis) in the men's synchronized 10-meter contest.