March 11, 2016
USA Diving News

Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif./Stanford, Calif.) and Sam Dorman (Tempe, Ariz./Coral Gables, Fla.) opened the 2016 FINA Diving World Series with a bronze medal in synchronized 3-meter Friday in Beijing. David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) and Steele Johnson (Carmel, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) were fourth in synchronized 10-meter.

The FINA Diving World Series is a four-leg, invitation-only circuit for the top finishers from the 2015 FINA World Championships.

Ipsen and Dorman won their first international medal together with 409.08 points in the synchronized 3-meter final Friday in Beijing. In fourth place with one round to go, Dorman and Ipsen closed out their list with 82.95 points on a reverse 1 ½ with 3 ½ twists while the Mexican duo of Rommel Pacheco and Jahir Ocampo missed their front 4 ½ tuck for 66.12 points to put the Americans ahead of them by 1.83 points for the bronze medal.

China’s Cao Yuan and Qin Kai scored 442.74 points for gold, with Russia’s Evgenii Kuznetsov and Ilia Zakharov finishing second at 430.32. Just 4.68 points separated third from sixth place in the final standings.

Ipsen and Dorman were in sixth place at the halfway point but scored 75 points on more on their final three dives, including 75.60 on their reverse 3 ½ tuck in round four. They scored just 56.70 points on that dive in the last month’s World Cup final, in which they finished sixth after edging Canada by .36 points to qualify the U.S. the final berth for the 2016 Olympic Games on that event.

In Friday’s men’s synchronized 10-meter final, Boudia and Johnson scored 407.10 points for fourth place, equaling their finish at last month’s World Cup. In Beijing, China’s Lin Yue and Chen Aisen dominated with 477.15 points for gold. Ukraine’s Maksym Dolgov and Oleksandr Gorshkovozov scored 426.21 for silver, and Great Britain’s Tom Daley and Daniel Goodfellow were third at 420.15 points.

Boudia and Johnson were second through four rounds before performing a back 3 ½ pike, a new dive for Johnson, in round five. The Americans scored just 60.48 points on the dive, dropping them to fifth with one round to go. They closed out their list with 83.16 points on a back 2 ½ with 2 ½ twists to move them up to fourth in the final standings.

The Beijing stop of the World Series continues through Sunday. Boudia and Johnson will compete in the individual men’s 10-meter on Sunday, and Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind./Bloomington, Ind.) will dive in the individual women’s 10-meter event that same day.

From Beijing, the World Series moves to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, next week.