Edmonton diver Eric Sehn seventh on one-metre at world aquatic championships

July 17th, 2009

Eric Sehn

ROME – Eric Sehn of Edmonton finished seventh in the men’s one-metre final on Friday as the diving competition got underway at the world aquatic championships.

Double Olympic medallist Kai Qin led China to a 1-2 finish earning 449.00. Xinhua Zhang was second at 445.90 points. Matthew Mitcham of Australia took the bronze at 440.20.

Sehn, 24, totalled 391.80 in his worlds debut for Canada's second best ever world championship result on men's one-metre.  He moved as high as fourth place after the third round but subpar marks on his fourth dive, a backward two and half, knocked him down to eighth place. He was able to regain a spot finishing the event with two solid dives averaging 8.0’s on his reverse and twisting dives.

“I wanted to make the final and getting seventh place is pretty good for a first world championship,” said Sehn, also scheduled to compete on 10-metre next week. “I hit a couple of dives really well and that helped me out. My backward dive is one that is inconsistent for me. I just rushed it too much this time.”

The preliminaries were also held on women’s 10-metre tower. Olympic champion Ruolin Chen of China holds the lead at 388.65, Melissa Wu of Australia stands second at 359.80 and Kang Li of China is third at 342.40.

Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., stands sixth at 322.35 and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal took 16 th spot. Both Canadians advanced to the semifinal on Saturday.

Filion was in 11 th spot heading into the last round but registered 76.50 points for her twisting dive, the second best score of the day for that dive, to shoot up the standings.

“The preliminaries are the toughest part of the competition because we wait so long between dives,” said Filion, who was among a field of 31 divers and averaged a 45 minute wait between her dives. “But I was able to keep my energy level up for the entire competition and put myself in a good position heading into the semifinals.”

Competition continues Saturday with the women’s semis and final on tower and the prelims and final on men’s three-meter synchro featuring Alexandre Despatie of Laval and Reuben Ross of Regina.

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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