GWANGJU, South Korea – U.S. divers picked up their third medal of the FINA World Championships when 2016 Olympian Katrina Young (Shoreline, Wash./Tallahassee, Fla.) and Andrew Capobianco (Holly Springs, N.C./Bloomington, Ind.) won bronze in the mixed 3-meter/10-meter team event on Tuesday.
The U.S. team scored 357.60 points on its six dives to finish third behind the Chinese team of Yang Jian and Lin Shan (416.65) and the Russian duo of Sergey Nazin and Iuliia Timoshinina (390.05).
The medal was Young’s second of the World Championships after taking bronze in synchronized 10-meter with Murphy Bromberg (Bexley, Ohio/Austin, Texas) on Sunday. Sarah Bacon (Indianapolis, Ind.) won Team USA’s first medal with a silver on 1-meter on Saturday.
The mixed team event consists of one male and one female diver, each of whom must perform three dives over three rounds. Each diver must do at least one dive from 3-meter and one dive from 10-meter, and all six groups of dives must be represented throughout the competition.
“It was really interesting. It’s the first time I’ve done an event like this, so it was really cool to compete by Katrina’s side and have her cheering me on after my dives. It was cool to see her hit a dive and then me have to hit one right after her, so I really liked that,” Capobianco said.
Young performed a back dive pike for 36 points on 3-meter in the first round and then did two dives from 10-meter, earning 70.40 points on an inward 3 ½ tuck in round two and 56 points on an armstand double back with 1 ½ twists in the final round.
Capobianco competed a reverse dive pike for 44 points on 10-meter in round one and then followed up with two 3-meter dives, starting with a front 2 ½ with 2 twists that earned 71.40 points in round two. Capobianco finished off the night with 79.80 points on a front 4 ½ tuck that put the American pair in the bronze medal spot.
“I’m really grateful that Andrew’s such an awesome diver and hit his last dive. He got our points up there the way that we needed,” Young said.
Capobianco said the individual experience the team event provided was beneficial after finishing eighth in synchronized 3-meter on Saturday.
“After 3-meter synchro, it was really good to get another shot on the international stage, this time in more of an individual sense. I was still with Katrina but I was diving by myself on the boards, so it was something that was pretty cool for me,” Capobianco said. “I competed individually last year at World Cup, but I definitely felt more confident this time, and I’m hoping that the confidence just keeps building.”
This is the second consecutive World Championships the U.S. has won bronze in the team event, with David Dinsmore and Krysta Palmer taking third two years ago in Budapest, Hungary.
Diving events at the FINA World Championships continue through July 24. Wednesday’s competition begins with Olympians David Boudia (West Lafayette, Ind.) and Michael Hixon (Amherst, Mass./Bloomington, Ind.) in the men’s 3-meter preliminaries, with the semifinal to follow. Delaney Schnell (Tucson, Ariz.) and Amy Magaña (Indianapolis, Ind.) will dive in the women’s platform final Wednesday evening.
