Wilkinson perseveres with smile and earns grin
MONTREAL (AP) – Laura Wilkinson kept on smiling, even when she faltered along with the rest of the leaders. She figured her one early mistake had cost her a medal, so fun became her priority. In the end, she really had something to grin about.
Wilkinson won the 10-meter platform at the World Swimming Championships on Wednesday, giving the United States its second gold medal of the day.
Chip Peterson won the 10-kilometer open water swimming race for the first American gold.
“I really didn’t think I could come back strong enough so I was just having a blast up there trying to do my dives as best that I could,” she said.
Wilkinson, the 2000 Olympic platform champion, finished first with 564.87 points six months after having wrist surgery.
“Just coming back from that and being able to be at this competition was a huge accomplishment for me,” she said.
She smiled, waved, blew kisses to the packed venue and shouted, “Thank you, Montreal.”
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. Overall, the Americans had a leading six medals.
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.
“I just decided to give it everything I had on each dive after that,” she said.
And have fun, too.
Waiting for the referee’s signal, Wilkinson searched the crowd for familiar faces, smiling and sometimes laughing before she got into position.
“I’m usually a pretty happy camper,” she said. “I want to have a good time up there.”
Defending platform champion Emilie Heymans of Canada wound up fourth, despite overwhelming support from cheering fans.
She missed her opening dive, then dropped out of medal contention on her fourth, when her legs hit the water and she earned all 3.5s from the judges.
Heymans’ mistake mirrored what happened to several of the 12 finalists. Many of them missed badly, smacking the water with their feet or legs and creating huge splashes.
“That happens quite a bit in diving,” Wilkinson said. “It’s really not that unusual.”
Jia started the miscues among the leaders by botching her first dive when she overrotated and did it again on her third. Tourky did the same on her fourth dive.
“I don’t regret it that much because I went for it,” said Tourky, who won silver on synchronized platform. “I was quite aggressive and I gave it absolutely everything.”
The Chinese have earned medals in all five diving events so far: two golds, a silver and two bronzes.
Wilkinson, Tourky and Jia did the same fifth and final dive, a backward 21/2 somersault with 11/2 twist. Jia scored the highest, but Wilkinson’s marks ranging from 9.5 to 9.9 kept her in front.
“It gives me a great feeling inside because I committed to diving through 2008 and I’m just absolutely loving the sport right now,” she said. “I just feel like this is where I belong.”
Peterson, 17, won the 10k open water race by 7.1 seconds over 5k gold medalist Thomas Lurz of Germany.
“It’s the greatest moment of my career,” said Peterson, who won’t compete in Sunday’s 25k because of fatigue. “It was really difficult, especially to extract from the pack. My tactic was to sprint at the end.”
My coach told me I can do it, but I was not sure before the race.”
Peterson, who was second to Lurz in the 5k, won in 1 hour, 46 minutes, 38.1 seconds. Lurz finished in 1:46.45.2. Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria earned bronze in 1:46.50.4.
Edith Van Dijk of the Netherlands won the gold in the 10k women’s race. The 31-year-old Dutchwoman, competing in her final world championships, finished first in 1:56.00.5.
“It was pretty hard,” she said. “We all stay in a group and just before the last turn I was only sixth.”
Federica Vitale of Italy was 2 seconds behind to earn the silver in 1:56.02.5. Britta Kamrau of Germany took bronze in 1:56.04.0.
Van Dijk also won a bronze medal in the 5k race, giving her 13 medals in seven world championships. She won the 10k and 25k world titles in 2000.
The United States beat Cuba 13-6 in preliminary men’s water polo.
Tony Azevedo scored five goals and Jeff Powers added four for the Americans, who are 2-0 in the Group B standings behind undefeated Serbia and Montenegro.
Serbia and Montenegro improved to 3-0 by defeating Japan 17-5, Spain routed South Africa 11-4, Russia edged Italy 5-4, Croatia held off Romania 6-4, Greece beat Germany 8-4 and Australia defeated China 11-6.