Russia, China Claim Diving's First Two Goodwill Golds

Fifth place Erica Sorgi highest USA finisher on the 1-meter

Russia and China reaffirmed their dominance in the diving world with gold medal performances in both the women’s 1-meter springboard and men’s synchronized platform. The two diving events were the first of ten at the 1998 Goodwill Games staged at the Nassau County Swimming & Diving Center. Irina Lashko, the current 1-meter world champion, defeated silver medalist Guo Jingjing, of China, 278.25 to 270.93. The bronze medal, won by Zhang Jing, China, was decided by three-quarters of a point at 270.15. The United States’ best performance, however, was in the middle of the 10 diver field. Erica Sorgi, of Mission Viejo, Calif., finished fifth with 252.36. "I am happy with my performance," Sorgi noted. "Two out of the top four ahead of me have been to the Olympics. They’re all great divers so I’m happy."

The second gold of the day went to Chinese team Sun Shuwei and Tian Liang for men’s synchronized platform. Introduced in 1995, synchronized diving features two divers who execute either the same or similar dives off the same board level, with the judges focus being on how they perform the dive as a team. The Chinese duo commented on the crowd’s overwhelming response to the synchronized event, noting that "it meets the needs of the audience." Eduardo Rueda and Fernando Platas, of Mexico, took the silver, and Russia finished out the awards stand with a bronze for Alexandr Varlamov and Igor Loukashin.

Mark Ruiz, from Orlando, Fla., and teammate Justin Dumais, of Ventura, Calif., took the highest USA finish at fourth. "This is my first time diving synchronized with Mark," explained Dumais. "We did great dives by our sync was a bit off."