The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Laura Wilkinson takes gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 22, 2005

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Sport - Swimming

Laura Wilkinson takes gold

MONTREAL: Laura Wilkinson survived a final in which all of the contenders faltered and won the 10-metre platform title at the World swimming championships on Wednesday, giving the United States its second gold medal of the day.

Chip Peterson won the 10-km open water swimming race for the first American gold.

Wilkinson, the 2000 Olympic platform champion, finished first with 564.87 points.

Tourky takes silver

Loudy Tourky of Australia earned silver with 551.25, and Jia Tong of China took bronze with 550.98.

Canada, China and the United States were tied atop the medal standings with two golds each after four days.

Defending champion Emilie Heymans of Canada was fourth on the platform.The Chinese have earned medals in all five diving events so far: Two golds, a silver and two bronzes.

Major gaffe

Wilkinson had one major gaffe in the final. Her feet smacked the water on her second dive, dropping her from first to fifth. But she climbed back into third on her next dive and took the lead for good on her fourth.

Wilkinson, Tourky and Jia did the same on fifth and final dive, a backward 2 somersault with 1 twist. Jia scored the highest, but Wilkinson's marks ranging from 9.5 to 9.9 kept her in front.

The results:

Diving: Women: 10-metre platform (final): 1. Laura Ann Wilkinson (US, 564.87); 2. Loudy Tourky (Aus, 551.25); 3. Jia Tong (Chn, 550.98).

Open water: Men: 10k: 1. Chip Peterson (US, 1:46:38.1); 2. Thomas Lurz (Ger, 1:46:45.2); 3. Petar Stoychev (Bul, 1:46:50.4).

Women: 10k: 1. Edith van Dijk (Ned, 1 hr, 56 min, 0.5 secs); 2. Federica Vitale (Ita, 1:56:02.5); 3. Britta Kamrau (Ger, 1:56:04.0).

Synchronised swimming: Team: Free combination: Finals: 1. Russia (99.333); 2. Japan (97.833); 3. Spain (97.167). — AP

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