FINA USA Diving Grand Prix Comes To An End
FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) — Sunday was the final day of the 2013 FINA USA Diving Grand Prix held in Ft. Lauderdale where Chinese drivers swept their competition and won all four events.
U.S. Olympic medalist Troy Dumais took silver in the 3-meter springboard behind He Chao's 53.25 points. Dumais, who won a bronze medal in synchronized 3-meter platform at the London Olympics, said he's not ready to focus on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games yet.
"I'm taking it a day at a time. I can't promise anything," Dumais said. "You don't make money in diving, I'm sorry - it's a hobby, it's not a career. I have to put some energy elsewhere. The only problem is, when you do that, it takes away from your diving. It's a balancing act."
China's Huo Liang and Jian Yang began the day by winning the synchronized men's platform with 460.77 points, ahead of Germany's Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein, and Colombia's Juan Rios and Victor Ortega.
China's Jie Lian and Huang Xiaohui finished Nos. 1-2 in the women's platform.
Dumais said he was pleased with his Grand Prix performance after having competed in Dubai, Scotland and Beijing in recent months. He planned to leave for Tallahassee, Fla., on Monday for this week's USA World Championship Trials.
"The other divers (in the Grand Prix) haven't been traveling the world. I'm beat up," Dumais said. "So, I'm really trying to keep it positive. It's a building block.
"If you're traveling all over the world just competing, you're not able to work on those things that might make that dive from an 8½ to a 9, or a 9 to a 9½ ."
Chao, 21, is the younger brother of He Chong, who won an Olympic gold medal in the 3-meter springboard at Bejing in 2008 and a bronze in London last year.
"I'm following in my brother's footsteps but I'm going to surpass my brother's success," Chao said through a translator.
Liang was half of the gold-medal winning synchronized team in 2008 at Beijing, where Hausding and Klein captured the silver medal.
"It's hard to see,' Hausding said of losing to the Chinese again. "You're working and working and yet they're still in front of you. Sometimes they can be beaten - but not today."
In the women's synchronized 3-meter springboard, China's Zhang Jun and Qu Lin won with 311.40 points. Ukraine's Anna Pysmenska and Olena Fedorova were second (293.70). Malaysia's Ng Yan Yee and Cheong Jun Hoong were third (282.90).
Lian won gold with 392.980 points, and Xiaohui had 368.55. Ukraine's Juliia Prokopchuk was third with 346.15 points.
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