Dinsmore Earns Bronze Medal at FINA World Cup
WUHAN, China (USA Diving) — University of Miami redshirt sophomore David Dinsmore and Krysta Palmer captured the bronze medal in the team event on Monday, the opening day of the 21st FINA Diving World Cup.
Team USA also earned fourth place in the mixed 10-meter synchro competition, with Katrina Young and Miami freshman Zach Cooper representing the U.S. in that event.
Dinsmore and Palmer gave Team USA its first medal of the World Cup after combining to score 374.65 points in the team event. Each diver performed three dives apiece to represent each of the six groups of dives, including one dive from the 3-meter and one from the 10-meter, as well as a dive with a degree of difficulty of 2.0. Through all three rounds of competition, the duo was able to maintain consistency with total combined points of 91.00, 223.45 and finally 374.65 to seal their spot for third place. China’s Chen Yiwen and Qiu Bo clinched first with 406.20 points, while Ukraine’s Oleg Kolodiy and Sofiia Lyskun placed second with 388.90 points.
Dinsmore came through on the pair’s final dive with his back 2 ½ somersaults with 2 ½ twists on the 10-meter platform for 88.20 points. The dive allowed the pair to edge Malaysia’s Ahmad Amsyar Bin Azman and Pandelela Pamg by 1.04 points to secure the bronze medal. Dinsmore also dove an inward ½ somersault pike for 49 points and a back armstand with 2 somersaults and 2 ½ twists.
“It’s always an amazing opportunity to dive against the best divers in the world. I’m just happy we dove well enough to get a medal today,” Dinsmore said. “I think Krysta and I both dove extremely well, as did the rest of the competitors today. I’m looking forward to the rest of the competition and seeing what everything has in store.”
Palmer brought 42.00 points on a reverse ½ somersault pike on 10-meter and then scored 60.45 points on a front 3 ½ pike. She followed up with a back 2 ½ pike on 3-meter, which brought the pair 63.00 points.
“David and I were really excited to come out here and compete tonight. We did the team event last year and had good accomplishments with it. We came away with the bronze last year and it’s really cool to follow it up with another bronze (medal) this year,” Palmer said. “It’s cool that we knew what we were coming in for and the competition was very tough. A lot of good competitors out there and it’s just fun to compete along the world class divers here. David and I just had a great time out there and dove to the best of our abilities. I think we both came out very happy.”
Young and Cooper completed the mixed 10-meter synchro competition with 295.38 points, 4.5 points shy of Russia’s Valeriia Belova and Sergey Nazin, who placed third. China’s Lian Junjie and Si Yajie clinched the gold medal with 353.31 points. Despite a back dive pike in the second round that dropped Cooper and Young from fourth place to seventh, the pair were able to bounce back to finish at fourth. The duo’s most successful dive came in the final round with a back 2 ½ somersaults with 1 ½ twists for 71.04 points. The pair also qualified to compete in the 2019 FINA Diving World Series.
The World Cup continues Tuesday, June 5, with Sam Dorman and Michael Hixon in the men’s 3-meter synchro preliminary and finals. Young also competes on Tuesday when she joins Tarrin Gilliland in the individual women’s 10-meter platform preliminary. The men’s 3-meter synchro finals will broadcast Tuesday at 6 a.m. ET and replayed again at 8 p.m. ET and 11:30 p.m. ET on the Olympic Channel. NBCSN will also broadcast the event at 6 p.m. ET.
