Diving Canada – Laval, Que.’s Jennifer Abel increased her Canadian record to 10 FINA World Championships medals by picking up a silver alongside mixed 3m synchro springboard partner, François Imbeau-Dulac, of St-Lazare, Que., on Saturday, the last day of diving competition in Gwangju, Korea.

Earlier this week, Abel, 27, became the most-decorated Canadian in history at FINA Worlds, with a silver medal in the women’s 3m synchro springboard with teammate Mélissa Citrini-Beaulieu.

At that point, Abel pushed one medal ahead of Olympic medallist diver Alexandre Despatie and Olympic medal-winning swimmer Ryan Cochrane.

After today, she now has a two-medal gap on those two great Canadian athletes, “I’m very happy about how it went here in Gwangju, I met all my goals, except one, I wanted to be on the podium in the individual last night but the fourth-place, my performance was good so I’m not disappointed,” said Abel.  
    
Abel and Imbeau-Dulac, 28, scored 304.08 points in the mixed 3m synchro final, only .78 points behind Australia’s Matthew Carter and Maddison Keeney.

Lou Massenberg and Tina Punzel, of Germany, won the bronze medal with 301.62 points.

“I have a lot of mixed emotions right now, obviously François and I would have loved to finish first, it was super close, but knowing that we weren’t supposed to participate in this event and we didn’t train together since London, the last World Series in May, it shows how you’re meant to be together and we are a good team,” said Abel.

The diving competition at FINA Worlds stretched out over more than a week, which isn’t typical of most high-level, compact events.

“I’m really tired and I’m looking forward to going back home to rest a bit before heading to Lima for Pan American Games,” said Abel.

Now that FINA Worlds is done, the Canadians will look ahead to the diving competition at Lima 2019 that is set to run August 1 to 5.

In the men’s 10m platform final, Beaconsfield, Que.’s Vincent Riendeau finished in 11th place with 440.70 points.

“I’m quite happy with the performance, I made a few mistakes on my back entries, but still I dove consistently and I was really glad to be up there in the men’s 10m final, it was a really strong event but it was an amazing feeling to be amongst the men in that final,” said Riendeau.

The 22 year-old Rio Olympian qualified a spot for Canada at Tokyo 2020 by virtue of making the final, adding to Olympic spots in the women’s 10m platform (2), the women’s 3m springboard (2), plus Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu earning Olympic nomination in the women’s 3m synchro springboard.

Full results can be found here:
http://www.omegatiming.com/2019/18th-fina-world-championships-dv-live-results

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For more information:

Maëlle Dancause
Manager, Public Relations
Diving Plongeon Canada
C: 514-475-4540 | maelle@diving.ca