July 22nd, 2011

Jennifer Abel

SHANGHAI – Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., and Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., are looking to potentially prevent a golden Chinese sweep in diving as they stand second and fourth respectively after Friday's semifinal on women's three-metre at the FINA World Aquatic Championships.

Abel and Heymans' performances also locked up two spots for Canada in the event at next summer's Olympic Games in London.

Minxia Wu of China leads at 360.65 points, Abel follows closely at 359.35 and He Zi of China is third at 358.05. Heymans is less than three points behind Wu at 357.90 setting up what should be a great battle for the medals in Saturday's final.

Abel was 10th in the preliminaries making mistakes on her second and fifth dives but returned in the afternoon with a flawless performance in the semis.

''The heat was really intense in the prelims and it was hard to concentrate,'' said Abel, a silver medallist on three-metre synchro with Heymans earlier this week. ''But I was able to come back in the semifinals and perform like I have all year.

''There was a lot pressure today to get the Olympic spots for Canada. Tomorrow it'll be a different kind of pressure to try and get a medal.''

There were 41 entries in the preliminaries and the wait was 35 minutes between dives.

''It can get a bit tricky in a situation like that,'' said Heymans, the defending silver medallist in the event. ''The heat and humidity can be tiring so it's hard to get properly ready for the next dive. I was really pleased with performance today and we wanted to get those Olympic spots right away.''

Competition continues Saturday with the women's three-metre final and the prelims and semis on men's 10-metre tower.Visit www.aquaticfederation.ca for full event & broadcast schedule.

Media Guides: available at www.aquaticfederation.ca

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