American surprises in platform diving

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LONDON, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- American David Boudia surprised China's Qui Bo Saturday to win the first Olympic diving gold medal for the United States in a dozen years.

Boudia captured the 10-meter platform event, where he finished second to Qui at last year's world championships.

It was only the second of the eight diving events at these Olympics that the Chinese did not win.

Boudia, who barely battled his way out of the semifinals, received consistent scores of 9.0 during the first five dives of the finals and led by two points heading into his last effort.

He performed a back 2 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists in the pike position and when scores of 9.5 were posted he had the gold medal wrapped up.

Boudia totaled 568.65 points to get the best of Qui's 566.85. Thomas Daley of Britain finished another 10 points back in third place.

The United States had not won an Olympic diving gold medal since Laura Wilson took the women's platform event at the 2000 Games in Sydney.

China won seven of the eight diving competitions at the 2008 Olympics and the only one it lost on that occasion was the men's platform.

Matthew Mitcham of Australia won the gold medal in Beijing and he competed at these Olympics, but failed to make the finals.