Caeli McKay and Meaghan Benfeito won gold in the women’s 10m synchro event on Sunday at the FINA Diving World Cup securing a spot for the Tokyo Olympics. 

McKay (Montreal, QC) and Benfeito (Laval, QC) scored a combined 305.94 points edging out Lois Toulson and Eden Cheng of Great Britain and Germany’s team of Tina Punzel and Christina Wassen.

“It was pretty overwhelming, but it felt good to be back with all the adrenaline,” said McKay. “We did some virtual competitions before, but nothing really compares to the in-person competition with all of our competitors internationally. It was really nice to see them and compete with them.”

The FINA Diving World Cup is the final qualification and test event for the Olympic Games. Eight finals are scheduled at the World Cup: 3m and 10m platform individual and synchro for men and women. The Tatsumi Aquatics Centre in Tokyo will host 225 athletes from 46 countries, from May 1-6, 2021.

McKay and Benfeito were in sixth following the prelims after scoring 285.09 points—adversity Benfeito welcomed.

“I was super upset after the prelims, but I think that is the position we kind of wanted to be in to actually live what the Olympics are going to be like,” she said. “It is going to be stressful and it’s a one-shot thing. I think regardless of where we’re standing on the start list, I think we just have to do our dives the way that we know how to do them, and I think that’s the positive thing that came out of today.”

On the men’s side, Philippe Gagné (Ville Mont-Royal, QC) and Thomas Ciprick (Baie D’Urfé, QC) withdrew from the 3m synchro event as a result of several lingering injuries and underlying non-COVID related health concerns that Gagné has been dealing with over the past few weeks.

Gagné will also withdraw from the individual event later this week and will return to Canada to focus on a new course of rehabilitation. He will not be replaced by another athlete in the 3m individual event.

Ciprick will now focus on his individual event and aim to unlock an Olympic spot for Canada in men’s 3m.

Jack Laugher and Daniel Goodfellow of Great Britain won gold in the men’s 3m synchro event on Sunday while Germany’s Patrick Hausding and Lars Rudiger and Russia’s Nikita Shleikher and Evgenii Kuznetsov rounded out the top 3 finishers. 

The FINA Diving World Cup is organized under strict sanitary and health conditions and without spectators on the stands. For each individual event, up to 18 places are at stake, while each synchronized competition will select four teams (out of the total eight that will dive at the Games).

About Diving Plongeon Canada

Diving Plongeon Canada (DPC) was established in 1967 as a not-for-profit organization to promote the growth and awareness of the sport in this country. As a member of FINA, the world’s governing body of aquatic sports, DPC contributes to the development of globally accepted standards of excellence in diving and supports the rules and regulations of international competition. Representing nine provincial diving associations, 67 local diving clubs and close to 4,000 high-performance athletes, DPC shares a national commitment to advance the art and sport of diving and to position Canada as the number one diving nation in the world. For information, visit www.diving.ca. 

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For more information:

Jeff Feeney

Director, Events and Communications

Diving Plongeon Canada

C: 613-668-9668 | jeff@diving.ca