Mandy Moran fourth at diving Grand Prix

February 28th, 2009

Mandy Moran

ROSTOCK, Germany – Mandy Moran of Dive Calgary capped a strong month with a fourth place finish on women’s three-metre Saturday at a Grand Prix diving competition.

Qu Lin led China to a 1-2 finish with 339.65 points, Jun Dong was second at 326.40 and Katja Dieckow of Germany was third at 292.20. Moran, who won the gold medal on three-metre at the Winter Nationals two weeks ago, followed at 272.55.

Moran was seventh in qualifying and third in her semifinal. The top-three from each of the two semis advanced to the final.

“Making the final was the big success for me,” said Moran. “I was pleased with how I improved through each of the three rounds. I did some really good dives but my score wasn’t what I hoped for the weekend. I’m excited about my start to the season.”

Moran admitted she felt more nervous than usual on Saturday, particularly in the final.

“It’s still early in the year and I’m looking forward to my break in competition to work on some things for the Canada Cup (the Grand Prix stop in Montreal April 30-May3).”

The preliminaries were held on men’s 10-metre tower. China stands 1-2 with Yang Xiang first at 506.05, Liguang Yang second at 479.00 and Constantin Popovici of Romania third at 451.00. Canadian Olympian Riley McCormick of Victoria is sixth at 423.50 and easily advances to the semifinals. The semis and final are on Sunday.

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.

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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