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Colwill, Tarantino Just Miss Olympic Medal

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By BILL WARD

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 14, 2008

Updated: 08/14/2008 12:11 am

As they stepped on the 3-meter springboard for their sixth and final dive of the men's synchronized event at the Beijing Games, Brandon's Chris Colwill and Boca Raton's Jevon Tarantino told one another to "just have fun."

To that point, they certainly were. The Florida duo was tantalizingly close to winning a medal in their first appearance at the Olympics. Although China's Wang Feng and Qin Kai were running away with the competition, Colwill and Tarantino held third place and were just one point away from taking silver.

Their final dive was a difficult one - a reverse with 31/2 somersaults in the tuck position - but they had been nailing it in recent competitions and they considered it one of their "money dives."

But Tarantino's entry into the water was slightly short of vertical, which resulted in too much splash, less-than-perfect synchronicity and, unfortunately for these close friends, fourth place and a seat in the stands for the medals ceremony. Less than five points out of third, Colwill and Tarantino knew they had let the medal slip from their hands.

Afterward, Tarantino shouldered much of the blame for the heartbreaking result, saying he "went a little short of vertical," possibly because of "wanting it so much." But Colwill said he made his share of mistakes during their six dives, too, and that synchronized diving is a team sport, not an individual one.

"There's definitely no one to blame," Colwill said by telephone this morning from Beijing. "On our fourth dive, we didn't come out of it at the same time and we were a little bit off. That cost us, too."

As many predicted, the Chinese pair captured the gold medal with 469.08 points. Russia's Dmitry Sautin, who has won more Olympic medals than any other diver, teamed up with Yuriy Kunakov of Russia to take the silver with 421.98. Sautin now owns eight medals, two of them gold. Taking the bronze was Illya Kvasha and Oleksiy Prygorov of Ukraine (415.05).

Colwill and Tarantino scored 410.73. On their last dive, they totaled 75.60 points, which Colwill said was about 15 points lower than they normally score. Colwill believes he and Tarantino might have been a little too excited about being so close to a medal as Olympic rookies.

"I think what happened was it got to us a little bit," Colwill said. "We knew we were so close to getting that medal that we might have gotten a little ahead of ourselves."

Colwill's father and mother, Chuck and Debbie Colwill, were in attendance for the competition at the Water Cube. They also believed their son had a solid shot at a medal.

"I thought for sure we had some color of medal heading into that last dive," Chuck Colwill said. "It's a good thing I didn't have a bookie or I would've bet the house because that gainer is usually one of their best dives."

About 17 hours later, Chris Colwill said he was still "a little bummed" by the result but he added it has also made him hungry for his next event, individual 3-meter springboard, which begins Monday with a qualification round.

"I already got up at 6:30 this morning to go to practice," Colwill said. "I'm diving well and I'm definitely looking forward to it."

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