Diving Canada – Veterans Benfeito and Imbeau-Dulac prevail at 2019 Winter Nationals

VICTORIA – Veteran divers Meaghan Benfeito and François Imbeau-Dulac topped the field in Sunday’s two finals at the 2019 Winter Nationals diving competition.

On men’s three-metre, Imbeau-Dulac, of St-Lazare, Que.,  saw at least 8.0’s posted on his six dives in the final and finished with 476.65 points. Philippe Gagné of Montreal followed at 440.05 and Cedric Fofana of Quebec City was third at 428.60.

‘’I couldn’t be happier to start off a new season like this,’’ said Imbeau-Dulac, a 2012 Olympian. ‘’I never expected to get these kinds of scores. I can’t pinpoint one dive I was most happy. It was just my overall consistency.’’

On women’s 10-metre tower, Montreal’s Benfeito survived a mistake on her last dive to squeeze out the victory with 372.60 points. Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., nailed her final dive but she was too far behind to catch the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist and took the silver at 363.85. Caeli McKay of Calgary was third at 353.30.

Toth was first in the preliminaries with a personal best 369.90.

‘’My last dive (back three and half) is my newest dive and it was very satisfying to do it so well here,’’ said Toth. ‘’It was exciting to finish so close to Meaghan but she puts up a heck of a fight every time.’’

These nationals were part of the qualifying process for the FINA World Championships this summer which in turn are an Olympic qualifying event.

Full results: http://www.issmembership.com/diving/live/schedule.aspx