Kristian Ipsen Wins Gold for U.S. at FINA World Junior Diving Championships

TUCSON, Arizona, September 5. KRISTIAN Ipsen (Clayton, Calif.) won his third medal of the 18th FINA World Junior Diving Championships, this time picking up the gold medal in the boys group A 1-meter final on Saturday. USA's Kassidy Cook (The Woodlands, Texas) and Loren Figueroa (Kingwood, Texas) also medaled, winning silver in girls synchronized 3-meter. Team USA has now won seven medals at the Championships, which conclude Monday.

Ipsen, also a 2006 junior world gold medalist on 1-meter, scored 560.80 points to win his second junior world title. China's Li Jincong narrowly edged Mexico's Kevin Chavez for silver, 535.75-533.80.

Ipsen, who won bronze on 3-meter and silver in synchronized 3-meter earlier this week, led the field in the 1-meter preliminaries, but dropped to third after missing his front 3 ½ tuck in the second round of the finals.

"I was a little nervous after I missed my second dive pretty badly, but I knew I still had my reverse and reverse twister and I knew I could do those dives well," Ipsen said.
He remained in third after the third round but retook the top position upon scoring 78.40 points on his reverse 2 ½ pike in the fourth round. He solidified the win with 81 points, earning 9s from five of the seven judges, on his reverse 1 ½ with 2 ½ twists in the last round.

"I'm happy. This is a nice way to close out my last Junior Worlds," Ipsen said.
USA's David Bonuchi (Columbia, Mo.) also advanced to the 1-meter finals and finished eighth with 492.25 points.

In the girls synchronized 3-meter contest, Cook and Figueroa scored 292.20 to finish second only to China's Liu Tian and Lou Ying, who took gold at 313.50. Ukraine's Viktoriya Potyekhina and Viktoriya Kesar won bronze with 289.89 points.

Figueroa struggled on her opening dive to put Team USA in 17th place after round one. Cook, who won gold on 1-meter earlier in the week, helped calm her down, and the pair climbed in the standings.

"I've been working on a new hurdle and it didn't work out so well (on that first dive). I was a little nervous, but having Kassidy there really helped. She talked to me and told me not to freak out," said Figueroa.

Cook and Figueroa had the highest scores of any team in the third and fourth rounds, scoring 67.50 points on their inward 2 ½ pike and 72.90 points on their back 2 ½ pike, to put themselves in bronze medal position with one round to go. They closed out the contest with 66.60 points on the front 2 ½ with a twist to pick up the silver medal.
Cook looked at the scoreboard throughout the competition and knew the team was in the hunt, but Figueroa didn't know the team had moved up to medal contention.

"It feels really good. Even if you miss a dive, you can never let anything get in your way," Figueroa said.

Russia's Igor Myalin won the gold medal in the boys B platform contest with 537.10 points. China's Chen Aisen scored 515.25 for silver and teammate Yuan Song was third at 481.95. USA's Steele Johnson (Carmel, Ind.) took fourth with 455.00 points, and Dashiell Enos (Indianapolis, Ind.) scored 370.10 for 11th.

Competition continues Sunday with Olympian Mary Beth Dunnichay (Elwood, Ind.) and Annika Lenz (Altadena, Calif.) in girls group A platform, and Enos and Bryce Klein (Southlake, Texas) in boys group B 3-meter.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x