TIJUANA, Mexico – Émilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., and Marie-Ève Marleau of Laval, Que., won the silver medal on Saturday in the women’s 10-metre synchro event to conclude the first stop on the $480,000 FINA World Series diving circuit.
World Cup champions Xin Wang and Ruo Lin Chen of China posted the best score in all five rounds and won the gold with 362.82 points. Heymans and Marleau were fifth after the opening two rounds, but finished with three strong optional dives to snare the silver at 326.88. Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz of Mexico were third at 323.76.
‘’It certainly wasn’t our best performance,’’ said Heymans, a two-time Olympic medallist. ‘’However our training had been going very well this week and we weren’t worried after having problems on our first two dives.’’
‘’It was our first competition in two months and we lacked some competitive sharpness,’’ said Marleau, who’s won two Pan am Games titles and World Cup silver with Heymans. ‘’We’ve been training regularly but it’s different when you have that stress of competition.’’
The cash prize for each event is $5,000 for first place, $4,000 for second and $3,000 for third. The overall champions at the end of the three-circuit receive double the amount. The competition is reserved for the top-eight ranked divers in the world in each event.
On women’s three-metre, Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver and Jennifer Abel of Laval were both eliminated in the semifinals. Only the top-four from the semis advanced to the final. Abel, 16, was making her debut on the circuit and was seventh overall.
‘’It was a very valuable experience,’’ said Abel who qualified a second spot for Canada on three-metre this past February at the FINA World Cup. ‘’There’s certainly no room for error with the best in the world here. I missed my first dive and I’m pleased with how I came back strong and fought hard until the end.’’
The next competition for the Canadian divers is the Maple Leaf Simply Fresh 2008 Canada Cup FINA Grand Prix meet May 1-4 at the Olympic Park Pool in Montreal.
The World Series circuit resumes May 24-25 in Sheffield, England and concludes May 30-31 in Nanjing, China.
