First international victory for Alexandre Despatie and Reuben Ross at Canada Cup diving

May 1st, 2010

Alexandre Despatie & Reuben Ross

MONTREAL – Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., and Reuben Ross of Regina earned their first career international victory as a team on the men’s three-metre synchro event on Saturday at the Canada Cup FINA Grand Prix diving competition.

Despatie and Ross, third at the world championships last year, totalled a personal best 426.04 points with Shixin Li and Longjin Yu of China second at 417.69 and Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Zakharova of Russia third at 395.88.

‘’This was a very important performance for us,’’ said Despatie, a three-time world champion. ‘’The victory is special but we are especially pleased with the quality of our diving. But we also know we still have a lot of room to improve. We are definitely on track to where we want to be. The big difference with our last performance was the quality of our individual dives was much better today. Our synchronisation was strong too.’’

In women’s 10-metre synchro, Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal took the silver for their fourth international medal this season. They finished just over a point ahead of Australians Melissa Wu and Alexandra Croak in third. Shengping Wu and Jiaming Zhu of China took gold.

“It wasn’t our best score this year but it is still a satisfying performance,” said Benfeito. “The synchronisation was particularly strong. The big thing we need to work on are our individual dives.”

Pamela Ware and Carol-Ann Ware of Montreal were sixth.

On women’s three metre, Jennifer Abel of Laval and Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Que., took fourth and fifth spot respectively. Han Wang led China to a 1-2 finish with Jiao Liu second and Sharleen Stratton of Australia third.

‘’I came within three points of my personal best score so this is a confidence builder for me,’’ said Abel, who earned 347.35 points. ‘’There are a couple of dives I know I can improve upon as well.’’

Heymans, a three-time Olympic medallist, is battling a hip injury.

‘’It didn’t bother me as much today but it was always in the back of mind especially on take-offs,’’ said Heymans. ‘’But overall I’m satisfied with my performance.’’

On men’s tower Matthew Mitcham of Australia earned perfect 10’s on two dives en route to gold. Ai Sen Chen of China was second and Jose Antonio Guerra of Cuba third. Riley McCormick of Victoria was sixth.

‘’I made two stupid mistakes,’’ said McCormick who has battled knee and shoulder injuries this season. ‘’I missed my easiest dive to open the competition and later on I missed my best dive that always gets me points. I was close to the tower with it in the semifinal, so I tried to push it out but I lost my timing at the bottom.’’

Competition ends Sunday.

More information and results: www.diving.ca

Saturday’s leading results at the Canada Cup FINA Grand Prix diving competition in Montreal (all finals):

MEN

10-metre: 1. Matthew Mitcham, Australia, 561.00; 2. Ai Sen Chen, China, 556.05; 3. Jose Antonio Guerra, Cuba, 483.35; 4. Peter Waterfield, Britain, 458.80; 5. Bryan Nickson Lomas, Malaysia, 440.00; 6. Riley McCormick, Victoria, 429.30.

Three-metre synchro: 1. Alexandre Despatie, Laval, Que., and Reuben Ross, Regina, 426.04; 2. Shixin Li and Longjin Yu, China, 417.69; 3. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Zakharova, Russia, 395.88; 10. Shane Miszkiel, Victoria and Riley McCormick, Victoria, 330.99.

WOMEN

Three-metre: 1. Han Wang, China, 389.70; 2. Jiao Liu, China, 375.95; 3. Sharleen Stratton, Australia, 372.95; 4. Jennifer Abel, Laval, Que., 347.35; 5. Emilie Heymans, St-Lambert, Que., 333.30.

10-metre synchro: 1. Shengping Wu and Jiaming Zhu, China, 346.20; 2. Roseline Filion, Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito, Montreal, 328.50; 3. Melissa Wu and Alexandra Croak, Australia, 327.12; 6. Pamela Ware, Montreal and Carol-Ann Ware, Montreal, 290.55.

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