Alexandre Despatie wins gold medal at diving World Series

April 16, 2010

www.diving.ca

VERACRUZ, Mexico – Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., earned his first international victory on three-metre springboard since the 2007 Pan Am Games on Friday to open the second stop on the FINA World Series diving circuit.

It was one of two medals on the day for Canadian divers.  Later, Jennifer Abel of Laval and Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., won the silver medal in their competitive debut together on women’s three-metre synchro.

 On men’s three-metre, Despatie rebounded from a difficult semifinal in the morning to win with 507.00 points edging four-time world champion Kai Qin of China in second at 493.00.  Yahel Castillo of Mexico was third at 470.10.

 ‘’I haven’t had a strong final like this in a long time,’’ said Despatie, sixth at the season opening event on the circuit last month in China.  Qin won the gold.  ‘’I kept the focus on my technique.  The victory is also satisfying for the way I came back strong from a disappointing prelims.  In the final I was consistent against a very strong field and made no big mistakes.’’

 Since the 2007 Pan Ams, Despatie has delivered strong results on three-metre including silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and bronze at the world championships last year in Rome.  The four-time world champion says his gold drought was never an issue or a bother.

 ‘’I always want to win,’’ said Despatie.  ‘’But for me it’s the way I perform that’s most important not the result.  It’s fun to win but the level of competition is always getting stronger and the guys are always diving well so you always have be better and more consistent than ever before.’’

 On women’s three-metre synchro, Zi He and Wu Minxia of China were the winners with Heymans and Abel second and Kelci Bryant and Abby Johnston of the U.S., third.  The Canadians were fourth after the third round and gained a spot in the fourth and fifth rounds.

‘’We only started training together two weeks ago so this is a great start,’’ said Abel.  ‘’I’m quite excited about diving with Émilie and I was anxious to see how we would fare internationally.  We showed we have a lot of potential as a team.’’

 On women’s 10-metre, Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal was fourth in her semifinal and missed a berth in the final by only five points.  Her downfall was her third dive, a back three and a half.

‘’The backward dive is the one that is giving me trouble right now,’’ said Benfeito, fourth in the event last year at the world championships.  ‘’So I’m a bit more stressed with it.  I had a very good take-off today but had trouble timing my entry.  But I’m not disappointed at all, the other three divers in my semi were very strong.’’

Competition ends Saturday.  The event can been live on-line at www.universalsports.com starting at 4 p.m. (EDT)

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