Canadian diver Jennifer Abel stands second on three-metre after semis at worlds

July 20th, 2009

Jennifer Abel

ROME – Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., infiltrated the Chinese wall in the women’s three-metre springboard event to stand second after the semifinals in Monday’s diving action at the world aquatic championships.

Abel, 17, put the heat on the legendary Jingjing Guo of China tabulating a personal best 351.65 points in the semifinal after earning 288.50 in the morning prelims for 10 th place. Guo, the most successful diver in the world today with four Olympic gold and eight world titles to her credit, totalled 368.10 to lead the field.

He Zi of China is third at 351.45 and three-time Olympic medallist Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., also made the 12-women final placing 10 th. The final is on Tuesday.

‘’I showed what I’m capable of today,’’ said Abel, a two-time Grand Prix medallist this season and 13 th at last year’s Olympics. ‘’I was pretty nervous in the prelims but I was able to manage my stress a lot better in the semifinal. The big difference in the semis were my improved take-offs.’’

After several seasons as Canada’s top tower diver, Heymans has switched her focus this year to the three-metre springboard. She says she expects it’ll take two years to master the springboard event.

‘’There were no great dives but no major mistakes either,’’ said Heymans, analysing her semifinal performance. ‘’I’m going into the final with the goal to do my five dives to the best of my ability. I know I can do them better than today.’’

The preliminaries were held on men’s 10-metre tower. Riley McCormick of Victoria advanced to the semis placing 15 th while Eric Sehn of Edmonton was 31 st and eliminated.

‘’It was a long competition but I felt pretty good,’’ said McCormick. ‘’I reached my goal but I’ll have to turn it up a notch to make the final. I really need to improve my finishes and not let those little points get away.’’

Bo Qiu of China topped the prelim standings with 515.75 points. The semis and final are on Tuesday.

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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