Alexandre Despatie and Reuben Ross win national three-metre synchro title with record score

June 27th, 2009

Reuben Ross & Alexandre Despatie

QUEBEC CITY – Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., and Reuben Ross of Regina set a meet record score en route to the gold medal Saturday in their competitive debut on three-metre springboard at the Summer Nationals diving competition.

Despatie and Ross, who are tuning up for next month’s world championships, totalled 430.23 points. They saw 9.0’s out of a possible 10 on five of their six dives. Olivier Morneau-Ricard and Demis Longoni of Quebec City were second at 301.38 and Brennan Villemaire of Ottawa and Austin Mix of London, Ont., were third at 281.88.

‘’Putting up this kind of score gives us a lot of confidence for the worlds and beyond,’’ said Despatie, a silver medallist on three-metre at the last two Olympic Games. ‘’Our synchronization was bang on and we just need to clean up some details on our individual dives.’’

On women’s three-metre, three-time Olympic medallist Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., notched her fifth career national crown in the event with 326.40 points. Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., was second at 311.40 and Pamela Ware of St-Hilaire, Que., posted a personal best 298.15 for third.

‘’It went super well,’’ said Heymans, who switched her focus from tower to three-metre this season. ‘’It’s a very positive way to head into the world championships. There’s still a lot of work to do at the technical level but I’m on the right track.’’

On men’s 10-metre tower, Eric Sehn of Edmonton earned his second gold of the competition totalling 431.70. Kevin Geyson of Winnipeg was second at 368.60 and Marc Sabourin-Germain of Montreal was third at 328.65 for his first career national championship medal.

‘’Right now for me it’s all about going up there and not missing any dives and that’s what I did today,’’ said Sehn, the one-metre winner on Thursday. ‘’I feel if I can show that stability at the worlds I have the potential to make the final (top-12).’’

Competition ends Sunday.

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.

- 30 -