Diving – TAIPEI – Elaena Dick of the University of Toronto and Celina Toth of the University of Victoria advanced to the final on women’s 10-m tower in diving action Tuesday at the World University Games.

Dick, the national junior and Canada Games champion, bounced back from a tough first dive to place sixth in the morning preliminaries with 288.20 points and was third in the semifinal, again experiencing problems on her reverse dive, with 297.00.

‘’My goal was to be consistent on all my dives and for the most part I was,’’ said Dick. ‘’I was able to make up for missing my reverse in both rounds with strong front and inward dives.’’

The 18-year-old from Edmonton is surpassing her goals so far in this event.

‘’There are a lot of really good divers here,’’ she said. ‘’Being able to qualify for the final was more than I thought I would do. I want to maintain my consistency and I feel I can improve my reverse and handstand dives.’’

Kuk Hyang Kim of North Korea was tops in the semis with 360.55 followed by Brittany O’Brien of Australia at 305.80. The top-12 in the semifinal advanced to Wednesday’s final.

Toth squeezed into the semis after placing 14^th in the prelims, making the cut by five points. She roared to fifth in the semis at 285.55. In both rounds she struggled on her last two dives. 

‘’In the past I’ve always started strong in prelims and deteriorated after,’’ said the 25-year-old from St. Thomas, Ont. ‘’I’ve wanted to reverse that pattern and use the prelims as a warm-up and perform better in semis going into finals. That’s exactly what I did.’’

Toth knows she can’t hold back in the final.

‘’There are still a few specific movements that are negatively affected when I hesitate,’’ she said. ‘’Committing to my entries is what I hope to improve on. This way I can put all five dives down like I know I can.’’

Canada has a five-member diving team in Tapei. Along with Dick and Toth are Ashley McCool of Calgary (University of Arizona), Tyler Henschel of Edmonton (Texas A&M) and Peter Thach Mai of Montreal (College Ahuntsic).

Competition continues Wednesday with the women’s tower final and the men’s three-metre with Thach Mai and Henschel.

Full results: https://www.2017.taipei/home