Boudia, Burke advance to finals at AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale
Boudia, Burke advance to finals at AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - 2012 Olympic gold medalist David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind.) returned to competition for the first time since the London Games on Thursday, with his performance in the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix semifinals earning him a spot in Saturday’s men’s 10-meter final. USA’s Amanda Burke (Southampton, Pa.) also will compete Saturday after advancing to the women’s 3-meter final.
The men’s 10-meter final will include two other London gold medalists. China’s Olympic gold-medal winning synchronized 10-meter duo of Zhang Yanquan and Cao Yuan each won their respective semifinals to advance to the AT&T Grand Prix final as well.
Boudia scored 465.85 points to finish second behind Zhang (529.65) in semifinal B.
“I wasn’t nearly as sharp as I was in London, but I love being back representing Team USA,” said Boudia.
Boudia was in first place through four rounds and scored more than 80 points on four of his first five dives – highlighted by a reverse 3 ½ tuck that earned five 9s from the judges in round four – but he missed his sixth dive, earning just 45 points on his back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists.
“I could tell that one wasn’t going to score well, but those things happen. And this is just a competition – not life. These competitions are learning experiences,” Boudia said.
Joining the three gold medalists in the finals will be Ukraine’s Oleksandr Bondar, Canada’s Maxin Bouchard and Colombia’s Juan Rios.
USA’s Steele Johnson (Carmel, Ind.) also advanced to the semifinals and scored 391.95 points for fifth in semi A and 10th overall.
Toby Stanley (Conway, Ark.) scored 394.70 for 10th in the preliminaries but was considered 13th in the final standings as only two divers per country can advance to the semis, and Boudia and Johnson finished higher in the prelims. Zachary Cooper (Greenwood, Ind.) was 14th with 377.75 points.
Burke advanced to the women’s 3-meter finals after scoring 297.70 points for second place behind China’s Liu Jiao (322.90) in semifinal A. Germany’s Tina Punzel also advanced after placing third.
“This was my first individual event in an international meet. My goal was just to advance to the semifinals, so to make finals, I guess I did pretty good,” said Burke, who was 10th in the preliminaries.
Qualifying out of semifinal B were China’s Jun Zhang, Australia’s Samantha Mills and Japan’s Sayaka Shibusawa.
Laura Ryan (Elk River, Minn.) also competed in the semifinals, placing fourth with 279.55 points in semi A for ninth overall.
2012 junior world champion Gracia Leydon Mahoney (Newton, Mass.) made her senior international debut and finished 19th.
The AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix continues through Sunday, May 12. Friday’s competition features preliminaries and semifinals in men’s 3-meter and women’s 10-meter.
