Canadians Carlson, Macaulay win high dive medals at World Aquatics Championships

Canadian divers captured two medals on Wednesday at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar.

In the women's 20-metre high dive final, Montreal's Molly Carlson scored 320.70 to take the silver medal while teammate Jessica Macaulay, also of Montreal, scored 320.35 to claim bronze.

Australia's Rhiannan Iffland won the event and claimed gold with a combined score of 342.00

Fellow Montreal native Simone Leathead (279.70) finished seventh in the final.

Carlson led Iffland by 4.3 points before her fourth and final dive, for which she earned a score of 77.00 points.

Although it wasn't enough for gold, it was enough to edge out her teammate Macaulay by 0.35 points.

"Second place at the world championships. I'm ecstatic, especially since it's only my fourth year in high diving and these are only my second world championships," said Carlson. "And it felt even more special because I really put my heart into it today."

"Knowing I was competing for the title of world champion made me nervous, but I'll work on that for next time," she added. "And it was amazing to share the podium with my teammate, who is about to retire."

The event capped a successful diving season for Carlson, who finished second overall behind Iffland in the Red Bull Cliff Diving series.

Macaulay, in her final competitive season, was sixth in the cliff diving series and earned a bronze in her final event in Auckland, New Zealand.

"I'm very happy with my performance," Macaulay, 31, said. "My final dive was incredible, and it was very emotional. I tried to stay focused on the present and to enjoy myself.

"Sharing the podium with Molly was very special because we've been training together for the past two or three years. I've watched her grow, and I'm happy to see how she's progressing."

Win and you're in for water polo team

The Canadian women's water polo team has one last chance to qualify for the women's Olympic tournament this summer.

Despite a 10-8 loss to Australia in a classification game on Wednesday, Canada will play one final match at the World Aquatics Championships that will decide its Olympic fate for 2024.

That's because Italy also lost their classification match on Wednesday, a 10-5 decision to the Netherlands, and will meet Canada for a seventh-place game on Friday at 2 a.m. ET that offers a Summer Games berth for the winner.

Italy beat Canada by a score of 12-8 earlier in the tournament.

"I think that we know this team, we know what to expect, so we're gonna be prepared and we're gonna give it our all and get that spot for Paris," said Emma Wright, who notched a hat trick in the loss to Australia.

Two Olympic spots were on the line coming into Doha, with Hungary, Italy and Canada the only teams in the top eight who had not already qualified.

Hungary, which will face the United States in the final, has locked up one of the available spots.

Wilm eyes another medal

Meanwhile, one day after securing her first career long-course medal, Calgary's Ingrid Wilm earned a shot at one more.

Wilm, 25, qualified for the 50-metre backstroke final, placing fourth across both semis with her time of 27.68 seconds. The Canadian previously earned bronze in the 100 backstroke.

"I'm pretty content. I could tell even within the race – which is pretty rare for a 50 – where I can improve. My breakout was a little deep but I wanted to make sure I didn't get [disqualified] there so I came out and it just wasn't very smooth," Wilm said.

Australia's Iona Anderson, who narrowly out-touched Wilm for silver in that race, posted the fastest qualifying time in the 50 at 27.51 seconds. Gold medallist Clare Curzan of the U.S. was the only competitor to beat Wilm in their semifinal, edging her by 3-100ths of a second.

The medal race takes place Thursday at 11:36 a.m. ET.

"I think for tomorrow, I'm actually going to work on speeding up my stroke rate to get another stroke in just so I don't glide into the wall like that again," Wilm added.

Also, Finlay Knox of Okotoks, Alta., reached the men's 200 medley final after clocking the sixth-fastest qualifying time of one minute 58.50 seconds.

The 23-year-old Tokyo Olympian will aim for his first major-championship medal on Thursday at 12:03 p.m. ET.

"I'm definitely going to have to watch the race, figure out where things are slacking. A few of my turns were wrong. But the fact of the matter is I got into the final and I'll be ready to give it everything tomorrow," Knox said.

Calgary's Lorne Wigginton missed the cut for the final, finishing in 13th with a time of 2:00.32.

Live streaming and extensive coverage of the aquatics worlds runs through Sunday on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.