KAZAN, Russia – Kristian Ipsen (Clayton, Calif./Stanford, Calif.) and Sam Dorman (Tempe, Ariz./Coral Gables, Fla.) finished seventh in the men’s synchronized 3-meter final Tuesday at the FINA World Championships.
The American pair scored 405.99 points, while China’s Cao Yuan and Qin Kai took the gold after finishing with 471.45 points. The Russian duo of Ilia Zakharov and Evgenii Kuznetsov were second with 459.18 points, while Great Britain’s Jack Laugher and Chris Mears came away with bronze at 445.20.
Ipsen and Dorman were in sixth place through four rounds, but a miss for just 67.20 points on their reverse 3 ½ tuck in round five dropped them to ninth.
“You miss one dive and you’re out, but we had fun. I went over on my gainer. It happens, but you’ve got to move onto the next dive,” Dorman said.
After the miss, the pair came back with 82.95 points on their final dive, a reverse 1 ½ with 3 ½ twists, to move them back up to seventh. They were 2.67 points behind the fifth-place team from Canada.
“(The finals) went pretty well. Our timing feels really good. We just missed one dive, and in a contest like this, that’ll take you out of it,” said Ipsen, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in synchronized 3-meter. “I feel like we have a lot more in store for us in the future.”
Ipsen and Dorman also were seventh in the morning preliminaries with 404.13 points.
The three medalists earned their countries a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games. Four additional spots will be determined at the 2016 FINA Diving World Cup.
The diving events at the World Championships continue through August 2. Wednesday’s competition features preliminaries and semifinals in women’s 10-meter, with Amy Cozad (Indianapolis, Ind./Bloomington, Ind.) and Jessica Parratto (Dover, N.H./Bloomington, Ind.) competing for Team USA. Parratto will also compete with David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) in Wednesday’s team competition.
Swimming news courtesy of USA Diving.