May, Lum Win Silver In Rome

June 24, 2002

Bill May and Kristina Lum scored a 97.150 to capture the silver medal at the Rome Open in June, finishing just six-tenths back of defending world champions Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda of Japan.

May and Lum scored 48.550 in technical routines to 48.950 by the Japanese. The free routine scores were very close, 48.750 to 48.600. The Canadian duet of Claire Carver-Dias and Fanny Letourneau finished a distant third at 95.800.

Following in order were France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Netherlands and Switzerland.

"The Japanese technical duet was very good," said U.S. judge Carol Tackett. "The elements are clearly defined and very well executed. You can see that they have spent a great deal of time training these elements alone was well as an integral part of the tech routine."

May again captured the solo silver medal behind France's Virginie Dedieu. May scored a 97.200, including one 10 in the technical routine scoring, to Dedieu's 98.350.

"Virginie's tech solo was very well done. She is very powerful as well as strong and shows a complex diversity of ability," Tackett said. "Her free routine is not well done yet, but she still shows the power, strength and emotional impact needed to score well with the judges."

Russian soloist Anastasia Davydova finished third at 96.100. Japan's Miya Tachibana took fourth, followed by Russia's Anastassia Ermakova in 5th, Gemma Mengual of Spain in 6th and Canada's Carver-Dias in 7th.

Japan swam away with the gold in the team competition with a score of 97.650, followed by Canada at 96.050 and Italy at 93.400. Spain, Brazil and Mexico rounded out the top six. The United States did not compete in the team event.

Next up for May and his U.S. National Team II teammates is the solo event at the Swiss Open, July 11-14 in Basel, Switzerland. Mary Hofer of Ohio State will also compete in solo, and will join Santa Clara's Andrea Nott in the duet event. Anna Kozlova and Alison Bartosik will fill out the USA's duet entries.

Full results of the Rome Open