BARCELONA, Spain – For the second consecutive FINA World Championships, David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) came away with the silver medal in the men’s 10-meter contest, giving the U.S. its only medal of the championships on Sunday.
Boudia scored 517.40 points to finish second behind China’s Qiu Bo, who also won the gold in Shanghai in 2011. Qiu finished with 581.00 points in Barcelona, while Germany’s Sascha Klein took bronze at 508.55. Klein also won the bronze in Shanghai.
The medal was Boudia’s fourth at a World Championships; in addition to his two individual silver medals, he has won a bronze (2007) and silver (2009) in synchronized 10-meter.
Boudia led after the first two rounds, but dropped to second when Qiu took the lead with 99 points on a reverse 3 ½ tuck in round three. Qiu then scored 108 points on a back 3 ½ pike and 110.70 points on a front 4 ½ pike in the next two rounds to cruise to the victory.
“Diving is a performance, and today Qiu Bo put on a ridiculous show,” Boudia said.
Boudia’s best scores were 91.80 points, on his armstand double back with 2 ½ twists in round one and his back 3 ½ pike in round five. He was pleased with his performance, especially knowing how difficult this past year has been for him.
“This has been the hardest year of my life. As I kid, I dreamed of winning Olympic gold and after that, there’s not a lot of motivation,” Boudia said. “I came into the World Championships wanting to see how much work I need to do. Ultimately, I’m looking to 2016.”
Seeing his competitors’ lists of dive gives him an idea of what that work might entail.
Qiu’s 110.70-point front 4 ½ pike carried a 4.1 degree of difficulty. Fifth-place finisher Ivan Garcia of Mexico earned 104.55 points on an inward 4 ½ pike, also a 4.1 DD dive. Garcia also scored 91.20 points on a front 2 ½ with 3 twists, which has a 3 8 DD; his teammate German Sanchez also performed that dive. Boudia’s most difficult dive carries a 3.7 DD.
“I’m going to have to step up my game. I’ve been doing the same list of dives for almost eight years now. The rest of the world is starting to do much harder dives and it’s going to get tougher,” Boudia said.
The men’s 10-meter contest closed out the World Championship diving events at the Montjuic Municipal pool, although there is more diving to come at the championships. FINA has added high diving to the schedule for the first time, with competition set to run Monday through Wednesday along the harbor in Barcelona.
