Montréal, June 6, 2025 – Éloïse Bélanger, Nathan Zsombor-Murray, Margo Erlam, and Carson Paul teamed up early on Friday evening for the first Canada Cup finals in Gatineau. The Canadian quartet amassed 398.00 points to secure second place in the team event, while the Australians captured gold with a score of 410.50 and the South Koreans collected bronze with 379.80 points.
“The team event is always so much fun! We get to be part of a team, and we all rely on each other, which creates really good energy. It was a great way to start the weekend and launch the series of finals,” said Bélanger (Montréal).
Erlam (Saskatoon) and Paul (Victoria) lifted the Canadian team into provisional second place halfway through the competition, thanks to their combined score of 188.80 on the 3m springboard after three dives.
“I really enjoyed doing the mixed dives with Carson. We weren’t able to train together, but we did practise our dives during the warm-up, and they went really well!” said Erlam.
Bélanger then took to the platform for her individual dive, which earned her 58.80 points, the third-best score of the round, tying with South Korea’s Halim Kwon.
Zsombor-Murray then added 78.40 points to the total before joining forces with Bélanger for the synchronized dive, where they cemented the Canadian team’s second-place finish.
“This event is much more laid back, and we can just have fun together,” explained Zsombor-Murray.
In the individual qualifying events, held earlier in the day, the top eight divers in each competition earned a spot in the finals, to a maximum of two athletes per country. The remaining contenders received a second chance to qualify in the repechage, where the top four advanced to the next round.
Saskatchewan’s Rylan Wiens made his intentions very clear early on, finishing first in the men’s platform qualifiers with a score of 463.40 points. The 23-year-old held provisional fourth place after two dives, but came from behind halfway through the round to secure the top spot.
Zsombor-Murray finished second with 456.05 points, thus also claiming a berth in the finals.
Although Matt Cullen finished in the top three with 411.35 points, he nevertheless had to go through the repechage to secure his spot in the finals. The 73.60 points he earned on his first dive launched him to first place, where he remained through the remainder of the event, ultimately accumulating a total score of 422.25.
Kash Tarasoff (Saskatoon) and Dean Calfacacos (Pointe-Claire), who respectively placed sixth and thirteenth in the qualification rounds, also moved on to the repechage, where Tarasoff finished second with 380.50 points and earned a spot in the finals. Calfacacos’ fifth-place finish (341.60) did not allow him to advance.
In the women’s 3m springboard competition, two Canadians advanced to the finals straight from the qualifiers. Finishing fourth and eighth, respectively, Margo Erlam (256.30) and Alexa Fung (241.35) will take part in Saturday’s finals.
Kyndal Knight of the USA dominated the event, finishing first with 296.05 points, ahead of Colombia’s Daniela Zapata (275.80) and her own American teammate Lily Witte (274.50).
Ella Lindsay secured a spot in the finals by placing fourth in the repechage. With a total of 249.95 points, the Ontarian obtained the last available berth in the women’s 3m finals.
Sonya Palkhivala (240.45), who placed sixth in the repechage, did not qualify.
The men’s individual 3m springboard and synchronized 10m platform finals and the women’s individual 10m platform and synchronized 3m springboard finals will all take place on Saturday.
Click here for all the Canada Cup results.
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More information :
Alexandra Piché
Manager, Communications
Diving Canada
C: 514 625-5513
alexandra@diving.ca