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In Ruinz Ruiz fails to medal in springboardPosted: Monday September 25, 2000 12:00 AMUpdated: Thursday November 09, 2000 1:19 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) - American Mark Ruiz, who earned 8.0s on just one of his six dives, wound up seventh Tuesday in the springboard competition. He came into the 12-man final in fifth place. Troy Dumais of Ventura, Calif., finished sixth. "I would do one good thing and mess up another thing," Ruiz said. "It's just one of those days where nothing clicked together." Xiong Ni of China won gold on his final dive with 708.72 points, beating Mexico's Fernando Platas by three-tenths of a point. Platas earned Mexico's first medal on springboard since 1980 with 708.42. Xiong joined American Greg Louganis as the only men to defend springboard titles. Louganis won in 1984 and '88. The 26-year-old Chinese became the second diver to win medals at four Olympics, tying Italy's Klaus Dibiasi, who accomplished the feat from 1964-76. Dmitry Sautin of Russia, who led each round going into his final dive, botched a reverse 2 1/2 somersault with 1 1/2 twists and settled for bronze with 703.20. Sautin, 26, was chasing his second gold in Sydney. He and partner Igor Loukachin won the inaugural synchronized 10-meter platform competition Saturday. But Sautin, who was third on springboard in the 1992 Barcelona Games and fifth in Atlanta, earned low marks of 6.0 to 6.5 for his last dive, the toughest on his list. He shook his head as he climbed out of the water. Xiong, 26, was second with one dive remaining. As the final diver, he scored marks of 7.5 to 8.0 with an inward 3 1/2 somersault tuck. He pumped his right fist, knowing he had snapped China's 0-for-3 start in diving at these Games.
His victory delighted a vocal, flag-waving Chinese contingent. They shouted "China, go for it!" in between Xiong's dives. Xiong retired from international competition after the Atlanta Games and opened his own business before coming out of retirement in April 1999 to bolster his country's chances. Ruiz, a 21-year-old from Orlando, Fla., is known for his dramatic comebacks. He rallied from fourth to first on his last dive at the U.S. trials in June. But there was no repeat at the Sydney International Aquatic Center. "I don't want to be back there. I want to start out good enough to be in front," he said. "I wanted to get 8s and 8.5s and keep myself in there, but it just didn't happen."
Ruiz over-rotated entering the water on his final dive, a reverse 3 1/2 somersault with a half twist tuck, and earned marks of 5.5 to 6.5. "If everything clicked together, I could've beaten them," he said. "I've broken 700 [points] before. My dives were not as sharp as I'd like them to be." Dumais started the final in eighth and moved to fifth after his opening dive. But he had two poor dives in a row that dropped him to ninth before finishing strongly to take sixth. Dumais added a new dive to his list, a reverse 3 1/2 somersault tuck with a 3.5 degree of difficulty. But he entered the water with a big splash and received 5.5s to 6.5s. By then, he'd already missed on his previous dive. "I had two blown dives. If you add 25 or 28 points to my score for each of those dives, I'm right where they are," Dumais said. "I wanted to enjoy myself and that's what I did, even though I missed a couple of dives." The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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