July 8, 2018
Diving: Grand Prix
Diving Canada – Calgary’s Ashley McCool advances to three-metre final at FINA Grand Prix
BOLZANO, Italy – Ashley McCool of Calgary survived a shaky performance to advance to the women’s three-metre final on Saturday at the Bolzano FINA Grand Prix diving competition.
It was McCool’s career debut on the circuit. She started the day with a 10th in the morning preliminaries.
‘’That was not good at all,’’ said McCool, who averaged 6.0’s on most of her five dives in the semis. ‘’In the prelims, my main goal was just to stay calm and deal with my stress.’’
In the women’s three-metre semis, Xiaohui Huang of China was first in the semifinal A with 338.25 points. Alison Gibson of the U.S. was second at 269.60 and McCool followed at 241.85.
‘’Our coach (Cesar Henderson) kept telling me it’s never over which was definitely the case for me,’’ McCool said. ‘’I was able to get a spot in the final just by being consistent.’’
In the other semi, Yihua Chen of China posted the best score of the day at 347.25. The top-three in each of the two semis advance to Sunday’s final.
‘’I’m looking forward to showing everyone what I can do in the final,’’ McCool added. ‘’I want more solid dives.’’
On men’s tower, Alexandre Corriveau of Terrebonne, Que., missed two dives to place sixth in his semifinal heat. He will finish ninth overall.
‘’Those two dives ruined my day,’’ said Corriveau, 18, who ranked fifth in the preliminaries. ‘’Everything else was very strong. My backward dive is one that is very difficult so it hasn’t been consistent. But I’m really upset about my last dive. My reverse is usually my best one and that’s why I put it last.’’
Peter Thach Mai of Montreal is the other Canadian at the competition. On Friday he placed seventh on men’s three-metre.