MADRID – Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver and Melanie Rinaldi of Montreal completed a strong showing for Canada at the season opening Grand Prix diving competition on Sunday with a bronze medal performance in the women’s three-metre synchro event.
Ting Li and Qinxi Zhao of China won the gold medal with 296.40 points to complete a golden sweep for China at the competition. Olena Fedorova and Alevtyna Korolyova of Ukraine were second at 292.44.
Rinaldi and Hartley, hooked up for the first time in a competition and took third spot at 287.70. It was a solid performance for the Canadian pair which received at least an 8.0 from a judge on each of their five dives in the final.
They are currently tuning up for the FINA World Cup next month where they hope to secure an Olympic spot for Canada in the event.
‘’Our first dive should have been better but overall it was a consistent performance,’’ said Hartley, an Olympic bronze medallist in 10-metre synchro in 2004 with Emilie Heymans. ‘’We confirmed here that we have a lot potential in this event. Right now our focus is the World Cup and we’re not looking beyond that.’’