Canadian divers on medal prowl at world aquatic championships

July 16th, 2009

Roseline Filion & Meaghan Benfeito

ROME – Based on this year’s results, Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal could easily be called Canada’s top medal hopefuls in diving for the 2009 World Aquatic Championships which get underway here on Friday.

Superstars Alexandre Despatie of Laval and Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., headline the nine-member squad which includes seven members from last year’s Olympic team which collected two medals.

Filion and Benfeito have the numbers to back up their medal potential for this year’s worlds. They’ve earned six international medals this season in the women’s 10-metre synchro in Grand Prix and World Series competitions including two gold. Between them they have five more individual medals on tower. They were world championship bronze medallists on 10-metre synchro as teenagers in 2005.

“We’ve had some great results and we are really excited to compete,” said Filion. “Our training has gone well so we are ready. A medal in the 10-metre synchro is our goal and berth in the individual final would be very satisfying for both of us.”

Neither Despatie nor Heymans are setting specific objectives for this competition. Injuries have slowed Despatie’s season and limited him to one international appearance. He won the silver medal on three-metre at the Spanish Grand Prix in May.

“I never set myself an objective in terms of results,” said Despatie, 24, a three-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist. “I just want to dive as best as I can with what I have now. I know I will be satisfied with that. I feel ready and all the pains and aches are under control.”

Despatie gets into action Saturday with the prelims and finals on men’s three-metre synchro with Reuben Ross of Regina. Despatie agrees that Ross, may be the most talented synchro partner he’s ever competed with.

Heymans, a medallist at the last three Olympics, switched her focus from tower to three-metre this year and says its been a big challenge to adjust to the springboard.  However she was impressive in a silver medal performance on three-metre at the Grand Prix stop in Montreal in May.

Ross is Canada’s busiest diver at the worlds. He also competes on one-metre, three-metre and 10-metre synchro. Other team members are Jennifer Abel of Laval (one-metre, three-metre, three-metre synchro) Melanie Rinaldi of Montreal (one-metre and three-metre synchro) Riley McCormick of Victoria (10-metre and 10-metre synchro) and Eric Sehn of Edmonton (one-metre and 10-metre).

Diving competition gets underway Friday with the prelims and final on men’s one-metre with Ross and Sehn and the prelims on women’s 10-metre with Benfeito and Filion.

On-line: http://www.diving.ca/english/html/events/2009/WC09.htm

About the 13th World Aquatic Championships
The 13th FINA World Aquatic Championships will take place July 17th to August 2nd, 2009 in Rome, Italy.In total, 2556 athletes from 185 countries will be competing in swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming, and open water swimming. This 2009 edition of the championship is the biggest one in history. The previous mark was set in 2007 in Melbourne when 2158 athletes represented 167 countries.

In diving, 200 athletes from 43 nations will face-off in the ten events taking place between July 17th and 25th at Foro Italico in
Rome.A total of 400,000 spectators are expected to attend and watch the ‘best of the best’ in world aquatics.

The FINA World Championships began in Belgrade (YUG) in 1973 and had the participation of 696 athletes from 47 countries.

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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