June 24th , 2010

SASKATOON – Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., and Reuben Ross of Regina earned one perfect 10 score en route to the gold medal Thursday in the men's three-metre synchro event to open the 2010 Summer Senior Nationals diving competition.

The competition is also the selection meet for the Commonwealth Games this October in India.

Despatie and Ross, fourth at the FINA World Cup last month, totalled 432.78 points to successfully defend their summer senior crown. Kevin Leong and Cody Yano, both of Edmonton, followed at 331.50 and Keith Tidey of White Rock, B.C., and Brennan Villemaire of Ottawa were third at 313.59.

"Our synchronization was particularly strong tonight," said Despatie, who joined forces with Ross last season. "It was among our best scores. Our goal was to focus on the aspects that gave us trouble at the World Cup and try and improve upon them."

On their sixth and finale dive, an inward three and a half, the pair earned a perfect 10 mark from one of the judges. "We know that's one of our best dives," said Despatie. "We can both do it really well and get some really big points with it."

In the women's one-metre final, 16-year-old Jo-Annie Dubois of Quebec City captured her first career national title with a personal best 270.40 points. Morgan Weller of Victoria was second at 256.50 and Rachel Kemp of Victoria third at 256.35.

''I've actually never won a Canadian title before at any level,'' said Dubois. ''I'm a little bit surprised it's hard for me to believe. The key for me was managing my stress before each dive. Everytime I landed a clean dive it gave me more and more confidence.''

In the men's three-metre preliminaries, Despatie has the lead with 463.25 points followed by François Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., at 415.55 and Eric Sehn of Edmonton at 410.65. Ross, who arrived here on Thursday morning from Miami just 90 minutes prior to the start of the prelims due to flight delays, is fourth.

In the women's 10-metre preliminaries, Carol-Ann Ware of Montreal stands first with Roseline Filion of Laval second and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal third.

Competition continues Friday.

Full results: http://www.issmembership.com/diving/live/schedule.aspx

Schedule
Events begin at 10 am on Thursday and Friday, and start at noon on Saturday and Sunday.

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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