Heymans, Abel win diving gold at Canada Cup
Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., and Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., won gold on women's three-metre synchro on Sunday at the 2012 Tin Bo Travel Canada Cup.
Alexandre Despatie of Laval added a silver in the individual three-metre and Roseline Filion of Laval was also second on women's 10-metre tower.
In the women's three-metre synchro, Heymans and Abel bounced back from a rough performance in last month's World Series competition, to place first with 323.40 points. Annabelle Smith and Sharleen Stratton of Australia were second at 318.60 and Li Kang and Li Sheng of China third at 299.91.
"It was a super performance for us," said Abel. "We really wanted to come back at this competition and win the gold medal in our hometown. It's a big boost for the confidence."
Heymans and Abel have Canada's Olympic spot in the three-metre synchro locked up. They were silver medallists at the world championships last year and the World Cup this past February.
"We need to maintain the confidence that we acquired today in our training for London," said Heymans, a three-time Olympic medallist.
On men's three-metre, Ethan Warren of Australia took the gold with 511.75 points, Despatie followed at 497.20 and Javier Illana of Spain was third at 482.60. Francois Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., was fifth at 450.15, his best score internationally.
Despatie inserted his new dive, a forward four and a half which has a 3.8 degree of difficulty. He earned mostly 5.5's but that didn't ruin his day.
"I can't be disappointed with this performance," said Despatie, a two-time Olympic medallist. `'I wanted to see where I was at internationally at this point in the season and I can say everything is going in the right direction. The new dive is a process and this was the right time to do it in a competition."
Imbeau-Dulac earned the highest score of the day with 95.55 points on his final dive, a forward two and half somersault with three twist in pike position. It has a 3.9 degree of difficult and only a handful of divers internationally execute the dive.
"My goal here was just to gain some experience," said Imbeau-Dulac. `'The last dive is one that is extremely stressful for me. So to land it well here was more than I could ask for. The competition in Canada is very strong in this event and I certainly will have to keep working hard if I want to get that Olympic spot."
In the women's 10-metre final, Pandelela Rinong of Malaysia was the victor with 379.70 points followed by Filion at 363.85 and Melissa Wu of Australia third at 360.25.
"I was really pleased with how I came back from my first and third dives," said Filion, a gold medallist earlier this week on 10-metre synchro with Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal. "On the opening dive [forward three and half] I had too much energy and the third one [inward three and half] I've had trouble with it all week. But I still have a lot of time to practice it before the Olympic trials."
Canada's top divers now head to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for the U.S. Grand Prix which starts Thursday. It is the last opportunity to gain qualifying points for the Olympic trials set for May 25-27 in Montreal.
Canada ends the meet with six medals (two gold and four silver).