Meaghan Benfeito missed qualifying for the women’s 10m platform final on Thursday at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The 32-year-old finished 13th behind Mexico’s Alejandra Orozco Loza – the top 12 women advanced to the final.
“Obviously disappointed, sad, but at the same time, I think it’s important for me to be proud of myself,” Benfeito said. “It’s been a rough couple of months, couple of years with the whole pandemic and everything that’s happened literally in the last couple of months. Just to be here, especially with all the things that happened of not knowing if there was going to be the Olympics, if they were going to get cancelled, if they’re going to go on—things like that—I think I can be proud of myself for pushing through all of that and stand up on that tower and give my best.”
Benfeito was fifth following the prelims but fell to 18th after scoring 38.40 on her first dive in the semifinals – the back two-and-a-half somersaults with one-and-a-half twists.
“I’m not someone who finds excuses, that’s not me, but earlier this week I did get a little bit lost on my first dive,” Benfeito explained. “So, standing up there in the semis, I think fear just took over instead of just trying to concentrate on what I can do.
“Arturo Miranda told me, ‘It’s your first dive, your first dive is usually your best dive, so just go out there and do it the way you can,’ and that’s obviously not what happened. I’m obviously proud of myself for pushing through and fighting till the end.”
The Laval, QC native, who won bronze in the 10m platform at the 2016 Olympics, briefly rose to the final qualifying spot after her fourth dive – the arm stand back double somersault with one-and-a-half twists, but fell to 13th following her fifth dive – the inward three-and-a-half somersaults.
Benfeito finished with a cumulative score of 296.50 – five points back of Orozco Loza for the final qualification spot.
“That last dive is probably going to haunt me for a couple of months, but it was the best take-off that I had done in weeks. When you don’t practice it like that, you kind of lose it at the end. I was spinning way faster than I’ve been spinning in the last couple of weeks so obviously, that’s what created the fact that I went over, but again, I’m proud of myself for pushing through all of it.”
China’s Hongchan Quan finished first in the semifinals with 415.65 points while her teammate, Yuxi Chen, was second with a score of 407.75.
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