June 4, 2010
CHANHZHOU, China – Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal earned Canada’s first medal at the FINA World Cup diving competition on Friday with a bronze in the women’s 10-metre synchro event.
Hao Wang and Ruolin Chen of China took the gold with 349.56 points, Melissa Wu and Alexandra Croak of Australia were second at 331.56 and Filion and Benfeito followed at 322.89. Rebecca Gallantree and Stacie Powell of Britain were fourth less than a point behind the Canadians.
It was a great comeback for Filion and Benfeito, seventh in Wednesday’s preliminaries.
“We did much better than in the preliminary round both in execution and the result,” said Filion. “We didn’t have a great start after the first dive (in the final) but we were determined not to finish seventh again. To get back on the podium at a major event for the first time since the last World Cup (in 2006) feels really good. That was like a little grey cloud hanging over us.”
Filion and Benfeito were fourth at the last two world championships in 2009 and 2007 and seventh at the Beijing Olympics. They burst on the international scene with a bronze at the 2005 worlds in Montreal. They entered this week’s World Cup with plenty of success after medal performances in their first three international events this season.
“We’ve worked really hard this season,” said Filion. “And we’ve had a very solid year so far and we could see the improvement. We just followed the same routine and tried to feel 100 percent at every competition. That’s what happened today.”
There was also some concern regarding Benfeito who injured her ankle on Tuesday. However she has not missed a beat, competing on Wednesday in the synchro prelims and placing fourth on individual tower on Thursday.
“The ankle was much better but the legs were still sore but I got through it,” said Benfeito. “We’ve come so close to a medal at the last two worlds that it was great for us to be ones ahead by a half point this time.”
China placed 1-2 on men’s three-metre with world champion He Chong earning the gold and Qin Kai the silver. Evgeny Kuznetsov of Russia was third.
Alexandre Despatie of Laval was en route for a medal but fumbled on his front twisting dive in the sixth and final round and dropped to seventh place.
“I didn’t have a very good take-off on my last dive and I didn’t push off the board very well,” said Despatie. third at last year’s worlds. “Something like that had never happened to me in competition. It’s too bad because up to that point it was going very well. I was consistent in the prelims and semifinals and I was giving it my all in the final. I fought hard until the end.
” Eric Sehn of Edmonton was 13th in the semifinals missing a berth in the final by one spot.
Despatie as well as Filion and Benfeito qualify for a second event for next season’s FINA World Series circuit with their results on Friday.
Competition continues through to Sunday.
More information: www.diving.ca
