Meaghan Benfeito misses diving podium for 3rd time at worlds

​A world title continues to elude Canadian diver Meaghan Benfeito.

The 2016 Olympic bronze medallist had a disappointing Wednesday at the world aquatics championships, finishing eighth in a final field of 12 on 10-metre platform with 331.40 points.

• SCHEDULE: FINA World Aquatics Championships 

On Sunday, Benfeito and new partner Caeli McKay narrowly missed the podium in 10m synchro final with a fourth-place finish in Budapest, Hungary. A day earlier, Benfeito and Nathan Zsombor-Murray tallied 307.80 points to finish in fifth in mixed 10m synchro. 

The 28-year-old Benfeito worked her way up to sixth during Wednesday's event after scoring 69.30 points on her third dive, a back 3 ½ somersault tuck with a 3.3-degree of difficulty, but couldn't climb any higher.

"I am very upset," Benfeito said in statement released by Diving Canada. "Not necessarily about being eighth, but more because it's not how I've been training at all. This final did not represent anything I've been doing for the past month-and-a-half or two months."

The Montreal native disappointed in her final two dives at Duna Arena, scoring 59.20 on her armstand back two somersault with 1 ½ twists and 54.40 on an inward 3 ½ somersault tuck for a total of 331.40.

• Benfeito, McKay place 4th in 10m synchro

Benfeito's teammate, Olivia Chamandy, is making her worlds debut and appeared to be battling nerves on the way to scoring 307.15 for a 10th-place finish.

Unlike Benfeito, the 16-year-old performed stronger as the women's event progressed, moving up two spots on her last two dives. Chamandy earned 65.60 points on an armstand 2 ½ with 1 ½ twists and 75.20 on her back 2 ½ somersault with 1 ½ twists and a 3.2 degree of difficulty.

"I was just diving for myself, just trying to dive the best I can," said Chamandy, who qualified for worlds after nailing her final dive to grab the second spot in the women's 10m tower at the Summer Nationals competition in June. "Overall I'm happy and this is a really good experience for me."

In a shocker Wednesday, Jun Hoong Cheong collected 397.50 points in capturing Malaysia's first gold medal ever at the world championships and second medal in Budapest. The 27-year-old fended off a double Chinese challenge from Si Yajie (396.00) and Rio Olympic champion Ren Qian (391.95). Yajie produced a higher score in the final round, but it wasn't enough to overtake Cheong.

Cheong surged to the lead in the third round and followed with her best dive of the competition, barely causing a ripple as she sliced through the water on a reverse 2 1/2 somersault from the tuck position. Four of the seven judges gave her a perfect 10.

"The first few dives I didn't even see the scoreboard, because I really, really needed to focus on every dive," Cheong said. "Until the last dive, I came up and I saw my previous ranking was first, and I'm kind of shocked actually."

Even though she led going to the final round, Cheong never expected to beat the Chinese, who traditionally dominate the diving competition. They have won five of nine events in Budapest.

"I didn't really think that I would finish first," Cheong said. "Maybe top three."

Benfeito, who is competing at her seventh world championships, is a three-time Olympic medallist who won silver at 2015 worlds in 10m platform and 10m synchro platform.

She considered retirement when longtime synchro partner Roseline Filion called it a career after the Rio Olympics, where Benfeito became the third Canadian to medal in the individual 10m platform, joining Anne Montminy (bronze in 2000, Australia) and Emilie Heymans (bronze in 2008, Beijing).

Canadians miss 3m springboard final

Earlier Tuesday, Philippe Gagné of Ville Mont-Royal, Que., and François Imbeau-Dulac of St. Lazare, Que., failed to advance to the final of the men's 3m springboard.

Gagné, 19, was 17th in the semifinal with 396.90 points while Imbeau-Dulac didn't make it out of Wednesday morning's preliminary round.

 "It was just little mistakes everywhere that I could have avoided," said a disappointed Gagné. "It was going well in training before world championships, but there was not the results in synchro and individual that I would have wanted. I can learn from this experience for the future."

On Thursday, Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware will compete in the women's 3m springboard, with the preliminary and semifinal rounds scheduled.