Courtesy: USA Diving
GOLD COAST, Australia – In his first competition since competing in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, David Boudia (Noblesville, Ind./West Lafayette, Ind.) clinched a spot in the men’s 3-meter finals after finishing first in his semifinal group.
Boudia will compete in Friday’s finals after a strong performance Wednesday. The tournament consists of two semifinals with six divers in each, with the top three divers from each group advancing to the finals. Semifinal groups were comprised by divers ranked by either 12-10-8-6-4-2 or 11-9-7-5-3-1 following the men’s preliminaries. Boudia, who had placed fourth in the men’s preliminaries, had a strong semifinal performance, which included a reverse 3 ½ tuck for 94.60 points in the fifth round. In his first competition since the 2016 Summer Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Boudia scored 474.85 points, leading Canada’s Victor Povzner, who had placed second, by 94.80 points. Russia’s Aleksandr Belevtsev finished third with 345.65 points.
Katrina Young (Shoreline, Wash./Tallahassee, Fla.), who placed second in the women’s 10-meter preliminaries, finished fourth in the semifinals with 248.65 points, leading Brittany O’Brien of Australia by 5.65 points. Young will advance to Friday’s finals, joining Japan’s Rin Kaneto, who finished first with 306.15 points, and Australia’s Emily Boyd, who scored 289.30 points. Lily Foster of Australia placed third Wednesday with 261.00 points.
The Gold Coast Grand Prix continues Thursday with Krysta Palmer (Carson City, Nev./Reno, Nev.) and Lauren Reedy (Rochester Hills, Mich./Columbia, Mo.) in the women’s 3-meter preliminaries at 7 p.m. ET. The FINA Gold Coast can be watched live on FINA TV.