SHEFFIELD, England – Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., and Marie-Ève Marleau of Laval, Que., won the gold medal in the women’s 10-metre synchro event on Sunday to conclude the second stop on the FINA World Series diving circuit.
Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver added a silver on women’s three-metre.
In the women’s 10-metre synchro event, Heymans and Marleau dominated the field with 341.30 points. Monique McCarroll and Sarah Barrow of Britain were second more than 30 points behind and Paola Espinosa and Tatianna Ortiz of Mexico were third.
‘’We were very nervous during the competition, we really wanted to do well here,’’ said Marleau, who teamed with Heymans for the last two Pan Am Games 10-metre synchro titles. ‘’I think that nervousness helped us dive well. We still lacked some precision with our entries and our opening two compulsory dives should have been better as well.’’
With the victory Heymans and Marleau collect $5,000 and are in contention for the overall title which offers double that amount. The pair won silver at the opening stop in Mexico last month
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‘’This is really good for our confidence,’’ added Heymans. ‘’The best part of the competition for us is we had a lot of positive energy and we were determined to do well.’’
On women’s three-metre, Guo Jing Jing of China took the gold at 380.45 with Hartley second at 356.35 and Min Xia Wu of China third at 340.00. Jennifer Abel of Laval was also in the final and was fourth at 312.40.
‘’I’m really happy with today after a tough week of training,’’ said Hartley, who earns $4,000 for her performance. ‘’I kept faith in all the work I had done to this point and kept faith in my abilities to come out with a satisfying performance today.’’
The third and final stop is next weekend in Nanjing, China
