ATHENS, Greece - Irina Lashko will try to make it another g'day for the Australian divers.

Lashko, who represented Russia at the 1992 and '96 Olympics before becoming an Australian citizen, advanced to the final of 3-meter springboard with the top score from today's semifinals. Chinese stars Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia were second and third.

Chantelle Newbery already pulled off an upset on the 10-meter platform - the first diving gold medal for Australia in 80 years. Lashko hoped to give the divers from Down Under a sweep of the women's individual events.

The 31-year-old Lashko totaled 246.51 points on her five semifinal dives, giving her a slender edge over Guo (243.06) and Wu (240.39).

Lashko won the silver medal in springboard at the Barcelona Games, when the Russians were part of the Unified Team. She took silver again in Atlanta, and continued to represent her native country until she moved to Australia in 1998, marrying and becoming and Aussie citizen the following year.

Rachelle Kunkel of West Valley City, Utah, barely qualified for the final, holding off Olena Fedorova of Ukraine in the final round.

Both ended with the same dive - a reverse 1½ somersault with a half twist. Fedorova received slightly better marks, but it wasn't enough to overtake Kunkel for 12th place. The American totaled 504.51 points in the preliminaries and semifinals, edging Fedorova by 1.23.

"Totally nerve-racking," Kunkel said. "I knew it was going to be tight coming down to that last dive. To be among the top 12 in the world is unbelievable."

The top 12 advanced to the final, with scores from the preliminaries wiped out. Kunkel went to the evening with 209.76 points, still just the 11th-ranked qualifier and a long shot to end the U.S. drought at the diving pool.

America's top springboard diver, Kimiko Soldati, was eliminated in the preliminaries.

Kunkel was hopeful that she could make up ground on the leaders with her tougher dives, which are not allowed in the semis.

"My optional dives are my better dives," Kunkel said. "I can go out there relaxed, spin hard and fast."

The United States divers have yet to win a medal in Athens, and there was just one event left after the women's springboard. The only time the Americans failed to win a diving medal was the 1912 Stockholm Games.

The Chinese have dominated women's springboard for 16 years, winning four straight gold medals at the Olympics.

"I was satisfied with my performance," Guo said. "There were some mistakes, but nothing substantial. Everything went as I expected it will go, and I will be back tonight."

Russia's Yulia Pakhalina had the best score from the preliminaries and semifinals, giving her the right to dive last in the final even though her semifinal score (237.42) ranked fourth.