Pakhalina, Cagnotto Qualify for the 3-Meter Springboard Semifinals
8/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
Aug. 15, 2008
BEIJING, CHINA -Former Cougars Yulia Pakhalina and Tania Cagnotto will compete in the 3-meter Springboard semifinals Saturday, after grabbing second and sixth respectively in the preliminaries.
Competing for Russia, Pakhalina posted a score of 358.15, finishing 15.75 points behind China's Guo Jingjing on Friday.
The four-time Olympic medalist will enter the semifinal, after taking a silver medal with teammate and current Cougar, Anastasia Pozdnyakova in the Women's Synchronized 3-meter springboard with a score of 323.61.
Pakhalina took home bronze in the 3-meter springboard and silver in synchronized diving at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. She also was a gold medalist in synchronized diving in Sydney in 2000.
Italy's Cagnotto finished the preliminaries in sixth place with a score of 332.90.
While Cagnotto only competed at Houston for one season, she set a UH and C-USA record by being named C-USA Diver of the Week nine times and swept all three diving events at the 2006 C-USA Championship. She was just the second diver in C-USA history to win all three diving events at one championship meet, joining Pakhalina who accomplished the feat in 2002.
While at Houston, Pakhalina was a five-time NCAA individual national champion in the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard. She also recorded 36 consecutive wins in collegiate competition and was an 11-time C-USA Diver of the Week.
Houston diving coach Jane Figueiredo is an assistant coach for the Russian team for the third time, including in 2000 and 2004. She also was an assistant coach for Great Britain in 1996 and competed as a diver in the 1984 Olympics in Portugal.
The semifinal round will begin at 7 a.m. (CDT) on Saturday, and the gold medal round will at 7 a.m. (CDT) Sunday.
Players Mentioned
