Wilkinson, Dumais Leave No Doubt With Victories

The 11 divers who will represent the United States next month at the Athens Olympic Games are scheduled to leave the country this week.

And Laura Wilkinson and Troy Dumais made sure they went out in style Sunday, winning individual titles at the Speedo National Diving Championships at the Mission Viejo Recreation Center.

Wilkinson, a gold medalist in the women’s 10-meter platform at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, won the U.S. title by 54.84 points over fellow Olympian Sara Hildebrand. Wilkinson, who trains at the Centralized Training Center in The Woodlands, Texas, did not receive a score lower than 8.0 on her final three dives, totaling 578.37 points for all five.

Hildebrand of Indiana Diving took a brief lead on the second of five dives and finished with 523.53 points, followed by Brittany Viola of Team Orlando Diving with 492.24.

“All week long this hadn’t felt like a big meet until today,” Wilkinson said. “I really wanted to do well to build my confidence.”

Wilkinson said she appreciated the push from Hildebrand and the other finalists.

“A lot of girls did great stuff,” she said. “I started to get into that, I was thinking, ‘I can’t wait for my turn.’ Because we’re Olympians, everyone wants to knock us off.”

Dumais, who is from Ventura but has been training in The Woodlands for the last four years, was even more dominant in the men’s three-meter springboard competition.

He had such a large lead heading into the last round that he had already clinched first before his final dive.

Dumais, among the best U.S. hopes for a diving medal in Athens, finished with 707.07 points for his six dives.

Mitchell Richeson of U.S. Elite Diving finished second with 610.44 points and Chris Colwill of Georgia Diving Club was third with 595.29. Dumais was able to pad his lead throughout by performing dives with a higher degree of difficulty than his competitors.

He strung together four scores of 80 or more, while the remaining seven divers combined for only one.

“I just wanted to test myself,” he said.

Dumais later teamed with his older brother, Justin, to win the men’s synchronized three-meter springboard competition, an event in which they will compete at Athens.

Hildebrand and Olympic teammate Cassandra Cardinell won the women’s synchronized 10-meter platform competition.