Veteran Melanie Rinaldi wins first career national diving title

June 26th, 2009

Melanie Rinaldi

QUEBEC CITY – Perseverance is paying off for Montreal diver Melanie Rinaldi in 2009.

After earning her first career international medal in an individual event this past March, the 29-year-old Rinaldi collected her first Canadian crown on Friday with a victory on women’s one-metre at the Summer Nationals diving competition.

Rinaldi, who is tuning up for next month’s world championships in Rome, totalled 272.50 points for the victory. Three-time Olympic medallist Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., took the silver with 267.90 and Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., was third at 263.35.

The last time Rinaldi competed on one-metre was at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

‘’I’ve been waiting for this title for a long time’’ said Rinaldi, a bronze medallist on three-metre in March at the Grand Prix stop in Moscow. ‘’I’ve been second and third at nationals, it seems, thousands of times.’’

Rinaldi had already qualified for the world championship team earlier this year but the Canadian spot on women’s one-metre was still up for grabs for the world team members.

‘’When I heard two weeks ago that the winner here could get that spot I started training for it,’’ said Rinaldi. ‘’I learned a new dive as well and I went in there and had a mistake-free competition.’’

Heymans was competing on one-metre for the first time since 2007. She botched her reverse dive in the third round which potentially cost her the victory.

‘’My reverse dive had the highest degree of difficulty of the competition but unfortunately it didn’t go so well,’’ said Heymans. ‘’I’m a bit disappointed to miss it because I had been landing it well in training.’’

Competition continues through to Sunday at Universite Laval.

For more information including a schedule bios is available at: http://www.diving.ca/english/html/events/2009/SSN09.htm

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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