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Wilkinson wins gold for Americans in 10-meter diving
2005-07-20
Laura Wilkinson of the U.S. celebrates her gold medal win in women's 10m platform diving at the 2005 World Swimming Championships in Montreal July 20, 2005. |
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MONTREAL Ñ Laura Wilkinson survived a final in which all of the contenders faltered and won the 10-meter platform title at the World Swimming Championships on Wednesday, giving the United States its second gold medal of the day. Chip Peterson won the 5-kilometer open water swimming race for the first American gold.Wilkinson, the 2000 Olympic platform champion, finished first with 564.87 points. Loudy Tourky of Australia earned silver with 551.25 and Jia Tong of China took bronze with 550.98. Canada, China and the United States were tied atop the medal standings with two golds each after four days. Defending champion Emilie Heymans of Canada was fourth on the platform. She missed her opening dive, then dropped out of medal contention on her fourth, when her legs hit the water and she earned all 3.5s from the judges. Heymans' mistake mirrored what happened to several of the 12 finalists. Many of them missed badly, smacking the water with their feet or legs and creating huge splashes. Jia started the miscues among the leaders by botching her first dive when she overrotated and then her third. Tourky did the same on her fourth dive. The Chinese have earned medals in all five diving events so far: two golds, a silver and two bronzes. Wilkinson had one major gaffe in the final. Her feet smacked the water on her second dive, dropping her from first to fifth. But she climbed back into third on her next dive and took the lead for good on her fourth. Wilkinson, Tourky and Jia did the same fifth and final dive, a backward 2{ somersault with 1{ twist. Jia scored the highest, but Wilkinson's marks ranging from 9.5 to 9.9 kept her in front. She smiled, waved, blew kisses to the packed venue and shouted, "Thank you, Montreal." Peterson, 17, won the 10k open water race by 7.1 seconds over 5k gold medalist Thomas Lurz of Germany. "It's the greatest moment of my career," said Peterson, who won't compete in Sunday's 25k because of fatigue. Peterson, who was second to Lurz in the 5k, won in 1 hour, 46 minutes, 38.1 seconds. Lurz finished in 1:46.45.2. Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria earned bronze in 1:46.50.4. Edith Van Dijk of the Netherlands won the gold in the 10k women's race. The 31-year-old Dutchwoman, competing in her final world championships, finished first in 1:56.00.5. "It was pretty hard," she said. "We all stay in a group and just before the last turn I was only sixth." Federica Vitale of Italy was 2 seconds behind to earn the silver in 1:56.02.5. Britta Kamrau of Germany took bronze in 1:56.04.0. Van Dijk also won a bronze medal in the 5k race, giving her 13 medals in seven world championships. She won the 10k and 25k world titles in 2000. The United States beat Cuba 13-6 in preliminary men's water polo. Tony Azevedo scored five goals and Jeff Powers added four for the Americans, who are 2-0 in the Group B standings behind undefeated Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia and Montenegro improved to 3-0 by defeating Japan 17-5, Spain routed South Africa 11-4, and Russia edged Italy 5-4.
Chen wins on last dive to give China its 7th gold (2008-08-21)Wilkinson wins gold for Americans in 10-meter diving (2005-07-20)Aussie Wins Women's Diving; Wilkinson 5th (2004-08-22)Wilkinson survives scare to advance from platform preliminaries (2004-08-20)
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