June 3, 2010

 

CHANGZHOU, China – Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., and Reuben Ross of Regina were fourth in men’s three-metre synchro and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal also fourth on women’s tower on Thursday at the FINA World Cup diving competition.

 

In the men’s synchronized three-metre, world champion Kai Qin and Yutong Luo of China won the gold medal, Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen of the U.S., were second and Ilya Kvasha and Oleks Prvgorov of Ukraine were third.

 

Despatie and Ross took fourth spot finishing only eight points from the third place Ukrainians.  It was only the third time they have competed together and the first time this season.  Ross plans to move to Montreal in September to train full time leading up to the 2012 Olympics.

 

“It was a solid performance for us,” said Despatie, third with Ross at the world championships last year.  “We increased the level of our performance and there were no big errors.  The big thing we need to look at is increasing the degree of difficulty of our dives because we saw today the competition is very, very strong.  It takes big dives and you have to do them well.’’

 

On women’s 10-metre tower, Benfeito was 15^th in the prelims, 11^th in the semifinals then roared to fourth spot in the final, the same result she had at last year’s world championships.  Roseline Filion of Laval also delivered a solid final placing sixth.

 

Benfeito has been dealing with a painful ankle injury suffered on Tuesday which has also caused cramps in her legs.

 

‘’The ankle felt worst today, I had to really convince myself I could get through the early rounds despite the pain,’’ said Benfeito.  ‘’Once in the final, I didn’t set any objectives in terms of results, I just let whatever happened, happen. I had two really good dives to start the final and that really helped.’’

 

Filion also improved through each round

 

‘’It was a long day with all three sections of the competition on the same day,’’ said Filion.  ‘’It was important to try and save your best for last and that’s what I did.  The most stressful part of the competition was trying to make the final and once there, I was more confident and gave it everything I got.’’

 

Despatie and Ross as well as Benfeito and Filion qualify for next year’s FINA World Series circuit with Thursday’s top-eight performances.

 

On Wednesday, the preliminaries were held in all four synchro events.  Jennifer Abel of Laval and Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., advanced to the women’s three-metre synchro final placing third as did Filion and Benfeito by placing seventh in 10-metre synchro.

 

Competition continues through to Sunday.

 

More information: www.diving.ca