Alexandre Despatie wins bronze medal in diving at world aquatic championships

July 23rd, 2009

Alexandre Despatie (R) and his coach Arturo Miranda (L)

ROME – Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., won the bronze medal in the men’s three-metre springboard event on Thursday in diving action at the world aquatic championships.

Olympic champion He Chong of China won the gold medal with a six-round score of 505.20 points. Troy Dumais of the U.S., was second at 498.40 and Despatie, first after the semis on Wednesday, took the bronze at 490.30.

It was Despatie’s second medal of the competition and the third for Canada in diving. On Saturday, Despatie was also third in the three-meter synchro event with Reuben Ross of Regina. Considering he missed valuable training time due to a back injury and was limited to one international competition this year prior to the worlds, it was mission accomplished for Despatie.

“I didn’t bring out my best diving today,” said Despatie. “But I have to be happy. I was very consistent with no major mistakes. These worlds were very positive for me. I had a tough year with the back injury and to come here and win two bronze is unbelievable.”

Despatie dug himself out of an early hole after posting the seventh best score on his first dive. He climbed the standings through the following rounds and put the heat on Chong in the fifth round scoring three 9.0`s and four 8.5’ for his inward three and half to move into second place.

“I stayed positive for the entire final,” said Despatie. “On the last dive I misjudged my entry and that affected my marks. I went very high on the take-off I went off my line a bit. It’s a dive that I tend to do better.”

Only 24-years-old Despatie continues to add to a sparkling resume. He now has eight world championship medals in his career along with two Olympic silver. He has won at least one medal at the last five world championships dating back to 2001.

Ross, 23, was 11 th in Thursday’s final. He is competing at his first world championships and is one of the busier divers entered in three events.

In the women’s three-metre synchro event, Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., and Mélanie Rinaldi of Montreal were fifth in the preliminaries to easily advance to the final on Friday. Jingjing Guo and Minxia Wu of China were first.

“This is a great start for us, we are really happy with our performance” said Rinaldi, 29, who joined forces with Abel, 17, three months ago. “We haven’t really set goals in terms of medals. We’re here primarily to gain some experience and get better each time out.”

Competition continues Friday.

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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