Aug. 14, 2004
ATHENS, Greece -
Former University of Houston diver Yulia Pakhalina and current Cougar volunteer diving coach Vera Ilyina grabbed the Silver Medal in synchronized diving on Saturday during the first full day at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.
The Cougar duo, which entered the Games as the defending Gold Medalists, earned 330.84 points at the Olympic Aquatic Centre. However, the Chinese duo of Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia collected 336.90 points to take the Gold Medal.
Australia's Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery won the bronze medal with 309.30 points.
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| Silver medalists, from left to right, Vera Ilyina and Yulia Pakhalina of Russia; gold medalists Wu Minxia and Guo JingJing of China and Bronze medalists Irina Lashko and Chantelle Newbery of Australia celebrate on the victory stand afer the Women's 3 meter synchronized springboard diving competition at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Saturday, Aug. 14, 2004. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye) |
After starting out slowly on their opening dive, the Cougar team performed a back dive that earned a perfect 10 from one of the nine judges and catapulted it from fourth place to second place.
A shaky performance on the team's third dive - a reverse 1 ½ somersault, 2 ½ twist - pushed it back into fourth place. But that lasted only for one dive as the Russians nailed their final two dives.
With a forward 3 ½ somersault on their penultimate dive, Pakhalina and Ilyina moved into second place for good and then closed the gap on a forward 2 ½ somersault with a twist that saw another judge award the team with a perfect 10. However, it would not be quite enough for the Russian team.
China's team was the only other competitor to earn one perfect 10 during the competition.
Pakhalina's and Ilyina's stay in Athens wasn't over on Saturday, though. However, the next time they dive, they will do so as competitors on the 3-meter springboard.
The individual springboard event begins with the preliminaries at 5:30 a.m. (CDT) (1:30 p.m. in Athens), Aug. 25. The 3-meter diving semifinals will begin at 3 a.m. (CDT) (noon in Athens) on Aug. 26 with the finals slated to start at 1 p.m. (CDT) (9 p.m. in Athens).
The Cougars are well represented at the Olympics. In addition to the two divers, UH diving head coach Jane Figueiredo is serving as an assistant coach on the Russian Team.
This is the fourth Olympics in which Ilyina has competed and the fourth for Figueiredo as well (three as coach, one as participant). Pakhalina is competing in her second Olympic Games.
A five-time NCAA individual national champion on the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard, Pakhalina established herself as one of the most decorated female student-athletes in Cougar history.
The Penza, Russia, native reeled off 36 consecutive wins in collegiate competition and was an 11-time Conference USA Diver of the Week honoree.
The dean of the UH Swimming and Diving Coach staff, Figueiredo is a two-time NCAA Diving Coach of the Year and three-time recipient of the C-USA Coach of the Year honor and taken 16 divers to the NCAA Championships.
In addition, her divers have swept all three C-USA postseason awards in each of the last three seasons.
Ilyina, who begins her second season as a volunteer diving coach in 2004-05, was an award-winning diver at Texas from 1996-98.
-- UHCougars.com --
