Heymans heads to final at Canada Cup diving competition

May 1st, 2009

Émilie Heymans

MONTREAL - Three-time Olympic medallist Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., won her semifinal heat and advanced to the final on women’s three-metre springboard on Friday at the 13-country Canada Cup diving competition.  The meet is also the fourth stop on the FINA Grand Prix circuit.

This is Heyman’s first competition since her Olympic silver medal performance last summer and her first foray on three-metre internationally since 2007. Heymans decided this season to focus on three-metre exclusively.

Heymans won her semifinal with 317.70 points. Her best marks were on her forward three and a half for a strong of 8.0’s from the judge. Abigail Johnson of the U.S., and Svetlana Filippova of Russia were second and third and also advance.

“It’s a good start for me and I’m pleased to get the season underway,” said Heymans. “I was nervous and stressed in the preliminaries because only the top-two Canadians could advance, and that wasn’t going to be easy. I didn’t really know what to expect because it had been so long since I had been judged on three-metre.”

In the other semi, Jennifer Abel of Montreal also advanced to Sunday’s final placing second between Australians Sharleen Stratton in first and Briony Cole in third.

“I’m super happy,” said Abel, 17, who competed at her first Olympics last summer. “I’ve kept the same dive list this season and what I really wanted to work on today were my take-offs and form. Both those aspects went well today.”

In the morning preliminaries, Stratton, Heymans and Abel were 1-2-3. Mandy Moran of Calgary was sixth, Hailey Casper of Calgary seventh.

On men’s 10-metre, Riley McCormick of Victoria finished fourth in his semifinal and did not advance. Jenler Aguirre of Cuba, Hugo Parisi of Brazil and Sho Sakai were 1-2-3 to advance to Sunday’s final. In the prelims, McCormick was second.

The very difficult back three and half in pike position is a new dive that McCormick has inserted into his list this year. He struggled with it on Friday.

“It’s my newest dive and | just haven’t totally figured it out yet,” said McCormick, 17. “It’s a hard dive to finish. It’s all about the timing and there’s no margin for error. It’s a bit frustrating to have done so well in the prelims then not make the final.”

Competition continues Saturday at the Olympic Park Sports Centre with four finals starting at 12:45 p.m.

Full information, including results and schedule available at http://canadacup.diving.ca/?lang=EN

About the FINA Grand Prix
Held since 1995, the FINA Grand Prix is similar in format to the World Cups in alpine skiing and speed skating. This season there are five stops, including the Canada Cup from April 30-May 3 in Montreal, Quebec. The Canada Cup is held in large part due to the support of The Government of Quebec and Sport Canada.

About Diving Plongeon Canada
Diving Plongeon Canada (DPC) was established in 1967 as a not-for-profit organization to promote the growth and awareness of the sport in this country. As a member of FINA, the world’s governing body of aquatic sports, DPC contributes to the development of globally accepted standards of excellence in diving and supports the rules and regulations of international competition. Representing nine provincial diving associations, 67 local diving clubs and close to 4,000 high performance athletes, DPC shares a national commitment to advance the art and sport of diving and to position Canada as the number one diving nation of the world.  For information, visit www.diving.ca.

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