The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland has erupted twice in less than a month, shooting clouds of ash into the skies above Europe. The cloud poses a threat to air travel, and has left thousands of passengers grounded or seeking alternate routes. (See Also: NASA Observes Ash Plume of Icelandic Volcano)

According to USA Diving, the third and final stop of the Series that would have been held in Sheffield, Great Britain this weekend (April 23-24), has been moved to April 20-21 in Veracruz, Mexico because flights to Europe have either been rescheduled or cancelled.

Although this is a trans-Atlantic venue change, it should not be as disrupting as you might think. Most of the divers competing in the final leg of the FINA World Series are already in Mexico, having just competed in the second leg of the Series at the same venue.

Found via suite101.com, British Swimming CEO, David Sparkes, says that “To ensure the athletes can resume the competition we have reluctantly agreed to accept the generous offer of the Mexican Government and Federation to step in to help in what is clearly a challenging time for everyone in Europe” (source).

Here is the final medal count for the 2009 FINA Diving World Series. All results from FINA.org.

According to the latest results from the FINA World Series of Diving, the fourth and final leg of the series was contested in Mexico City without the presence of spectators.

If you’ve been keeping up on the news, then you know about a recent increase in the number of documented cases of swine flu. With at least 20 laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu in Mexico, it appears as if our neighbor to the south could be the source of the outbreak. The New York Times released this map (open in new window) of documented cases in North America.

According to the CDC, the Secretary of the Department for Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has declared a public health emergency in the United States. While I was in Ann Arbor, I spoke with a graduate student in the University of Michigan Department of Public Health who informed me that this strain of the influenza virus is not necessarily deadly if treated properly. However, it would appear that people in Mexico have been advised against congregating in close contact with each other (such as at a diving meet).

Nevertheless, the FINA World Series of Diving concluded with China taking 7 of the possible 8 event titles at the Mexico City competition. A Chinese sweep was stopped by the British Men’s 3-meter Synchro team of Ben Swain and Nicholas Robinson-Baker (source).

> View results from the Mexico City Diving World Series meet.

I couldn’t find a good medal count for the 2009 FINA World Series of Diving, so I just made one myself. All results are from FINA.org.

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I’m a huge fan of the amount of attention Universal Sports is giving to the FINA Diving World Series. The site will be providing LIVE coverage of the diving events April 18th-19th (which means an early start time for those of us watching on this side of the pond).

Aside from the webcast coverage, Universal Sports also has a great collection of photos from Getty Images, including pictures from the World Series diving event in Doha.

Check out this article they posted on Wednesday, with quotes from Thomas Finchum and USA Diving High Performance Director, Steve Foley. As mentioned in a previous post, the dynamic duo of Finchum and Boudia will not reunite until the World Series moves to Mexico next week. However, don’t count out the 10-meter synchro team of Thomas Finchum and Nick McCrory just yet. They took the silver medal at the previous World Series stop in China, placing behind the team of Lin Yue/Huo Liang (CHN).

Host team Britain’s Tom Daley will be tested with his new synchro partner Max Brick as this is their first competition diving together. More on the controversy surrounding the line-up change in this previous post.

Briony “Bree” Cole, an Australian diver, recently posted some photos of her trips to both Changzhou (China) and Doha (Qatar) while she was traveling for the FINA World Series competitions.

Check out Bree’s blog to see all the photos from her travels, including an indoor canal with gondolas at a shopping center (in the style of Las Vegas), camel rides through the desert, and a group photo of Bree Cole showing off her Olympic tattoo with British divers Ben Swain and Nick Robinson-Baker.

Bree has been updating her blog about once a month since 2005, and usually has some good behind the scenes pictures from big meets, or stories from diving on an international level.

Universal Sports is literally counting down to the first meet of the 2009 FINA Diving World Series in Qatar. It looks like the meet will be live webcast through the Universal Sports Diving media section.

The site has archives of last year’s Diving World Series, but I had a problem getting the videos to load. Hopefully they are working the kinks out, because this is shaping up to be a wonderful database of diving media.

The World Series of Diving presents a more lucrative opportunity for international elite divers than does the Grand Prix. With prizes totaling US$576,000, the World Series “promotes awareness about which countries are renowned for the sport, while fostering the discipline