MONTREAL, Canada, July 21. AN early mistake in her program wasn’t enough to deter the United States’ Laura Wilkinson from capturing a gold medal on Monday in the 10-meter platform diving competition at the World Championships. The 2000 Olympic champ in the platform event, Wilkinson rallied from a poor effort on her second dive and took top honors with a score of 564.87.
Six months after having wrist surgery, Wilkinson was strong throughout the remainder of her list and rose from fifth after her mishap to the top of the leaderboard. Australia’s Loudy Tourky was the silver-medal finisher with a score of 551.25 and China’s Jia Tong claimed the bronze medal with an effort of 550.98. Despite her error, Wilkinson moved into the lead by the completion of the fourth round. Canada’s Emilie Heymans, the defending world champ, was fourth.
In the open-water swimming competition, Chip Peterson snared his second medal of the World Championships by taking gold in the 10K race. The silver medalist in the 5K distance, Peterson covered the swim in 1:46:38.1, handing him a 7.1-second victory over Germany’s Thomas Lurz, the winner of the 5K event. Petar Stoychev was the bronze medalist in the 10K race.
As for the women’s version of the 10K, the Netherlands’ Edith Van Dijk was the gold-medal winner, a fitting finish for a woman competing in the final World Championships of her career. Italy’s Federica Vitale was the silver medalist and was followed in the bronze position by Britta Kamrau of Germany. Van Dijk earlier won bronze in the 5K race and has 13 medals in World Champs action.