Team USA Takes Fourth In 3-Meter Synchro
SHANGHAI – Miami Hurricanes All-American Sam Dorman and teammate David Boudia captured fourth place in the men’s synchronized 3-meter event Thursday at the FINA Diving World Cup, the top international competition of the year.
Boudia and Dorman finished with 417.54 points in the 3-meter synchro final, which was won by China’s Lin Yue and Cao Yuan at 461.31. The same pair also took gold in men’s 10-meter synchro on Wednesday. Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Stefan Feck scored 431.40 points for silver, finishing six-hundredths of a point ahead of 2012 Olympic silver medalists Evgenii Kuznetsov and Ilia Zakharov of Russia.
The Americans scored more than 80 points on two of their optional dives, highlighted by 86.10 points on their reverse 1 ½ with 3 ½ twists in the last round, but Boudia knows there is room for improvement.
“I’m extremely pleased with how we did, especially considering where we were in April. We had two misses and were still fourth place, 15 points out of third. Those are easy points to pick up. Sam and I will continue to train hard and we’ll see how we progress with our consistency,” Boudia said.
Dorman was competing in his first World Cup meet, and Boudia was impressed with how the rookie handled the meet.
“It’s not easy to go into a world-level competition and handle the pressure. The Chinese dove right before us, and the crowd was going wild. This is what he’s trained for his entire life, and he handled it like a pro, like he’s been doing it for years. I’m just happy I could be right beside him. I continue to learn from him,” Boudia said.
The Americans also finished fourth in the preliminaries, although they scored 8.73 points higher in the finals.
“In the prelims, I had a lot of nerves. Coming into finals, after we walked out, we were laughing and just really casual, in good spirits all around. David really kept me at ease. I was really happy to see us do as well as we did,” Dorman said.
The FINA World Cup continues through Sunday, July 20. Boudia will compete Friday in the individual men’s 3-meter event, with Nick McCrory (Chapel Hill, N.C./Bloomington, Ind.) also diving in the event. Friday’s events also will include Samantha “Murphy” Bromberg (Bexley, Ohio/Austin, Texas) and Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Bloomington, Ind.) in the individual women’s 10-meter contest.
To read the full release from USA Diving, click HERE.
