Canada's Abel, Citrini-Beaulieu take world diving silver
Duo reaches 3m synchro podium in first season together
Canada's Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu took the silver medal in the women's three-metre synchronized diving event Monday at the world championships in Budapest, Hungary.
It was Canada's first podium finish at the meet, which runs through July 30 and includes diving, swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo events.
- Watch all 5 dives:
The Canadians closed with an inward 2½ somersaults pike and scored 323.40 points to finish behind the favoured Chinese team of Tingmao Shi and Yani Chang, which won gold with 333.30. Russia's Kristina Ilinykh and Nadezhda Bazhina landed bronze with 312.60.
Abel, from Laval, Que., and Citrini-Beaulieu, from St-Constant, Que., only began diving together this season because of an injury suffered by Pamela Ware, who was Abel's teammate at the 2016 Olympics. Ware has recovered and is also competing in Budapest.
"It was more than I expected, so I'm really proud of us," Citrini-Beaulieu told CBC Sports.
This is the first world championship medal for Citrini-Beaulieu and the sixth for Ware. She won individual bronze in 2011 and collected three silvers and a bronze in synchro events with Ware, Emilie Heymans and François Imbeau-Dulac. Abel also took Olympic bronze in 2012 with Heymans.
"We were ready for this. We were ready to fight," Abel told CBC Sports after Monday's event. "We wanted to finish here with a smile, and that's what happened."
Shi and Chang led from the first round and produced an almost-perfect forward 2½ somersaults, one twist pike in the fifth and final round to secure China's ninth consecutive world title in the event.
China grabs gold in men's 10m platform
Chinese domination of diving continued in the men's 10-metre platform, where Chen Aisen and Yang Hao delivered China's fifth gold of the championships.
Russia's Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev, almost 40 points behind, came closest to the Chinese for the silver, and Germany's first medal of the week went to third-placed Patrick Hausding and Sascha Klein.
With files from The Associated Press