Montréal, July 17, 2023 – Mia Vallée and Pamela Ware were satisfied with their performance in the women’s 3-metre synchronized final, which earned them fifth place on Monday at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The podium was clearly within their reach, but at this level of international competition, every point counts.
Italians Chiara Pellacani and Elena Bertocchi (285.99) won the three-way battle for bronze, barely edging out Americans Sarah Bacon et Kassidy Cook (285.39). The Canadians finished only 1.77 points away from the bronze medal, with a score of 284.22.
Yani Chang and Yiwen Chen of China earned the title of world champions in the event, with a cumulative score of 341.94 points. Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper of Great Britain won silver with 296.58.
China also won the men’s 10-metre synchronized event. No Canadians competed.
“Honestly, I’m really happy with what we did today (Monday),” said Ware, of Montréal. “It’s not the result were hoping for, but I’m very proud of Mia. We persevered throughout the competition. It shows that as a team, we have things to work on, but we’re prepared to do so.”
Vallée echoed her teammate’s sentiment, adding that her individual technique could perhaps have been a little tighter.
“I’m happy with how we dove, but that’s how it goes in a judged sport. You don’t always get the results you want. Plus, we were so close to third place. Personally, I didn’t get the scores I wanted, but despite that, we almost made it to the podium. It just goes to show that with a little more work, we’ll be even better in the future,” said the 22-year-old, adding that she was proud of the level of synchronization she and Ware demonstrated in the final.
The first of their five dives proved to be the decisive factor, as the Canadian duo obtained the seventh-best score in that round. After that, they rallied to improve their ranking. In fact, in the third and fourth heats, they earned the third-highest scores.
Although the two Montréalers have only been diving together for a short time, their rapport as a team has been growing. They know it will be an important factor in their international success, as veteran Ware points out.
“Mia is very serious when we train. I think that if she loosens up a bit, (it will help her).”
Mia laughed at this before adding, “When I arrived at the (World Cup, last May) in Montréal, she said, ‘I’m going to get you to dance during training at least once!’ And now, it happens often. […] I was really stressed last year because it was my first time (at the Worlds). It’s great to have Pam with me at every training session. We get along really well and have a lot of fun.”
The two divers will take a day off before resuming training on Wednesday for the 3-metre individual preliminaries.
Canadians Caeli McKay and Elaena Dick will be in action on Tuesday in the women’s 10-metre preliminaries.
More information :
Alexandra Piché
Manager, Communications
Diving Canada
C: 514 625-5513
alexandra@diving.ca