Diving Canada – Make it three days in a row

 Philippe Gagné and François Imbeau-Dulac continued the medal streak for Canada, earning a silver medal in the men’s 3m synchro springboard on Friday at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

And it wasn’t easy. 

Imbeau-Dulac, 27, said he encountered some mental challenges, stemming from less than ideal training sessions.

“It was a really, really rough competition emotionally but I really tried to be emotionless and it worked,” said Imbeau-Dulac.

The Canadian Olympians teamed up to score 415.23 points. England’s Jack Laugher and Chris Mears took the gold medal with 436.17 points while Australia’s Domonic Bedggood and Matthew Carter placed third with 408.12 points.

Imbeau-Dulac, from Saint-Lazare, Que., said Montreal’s Gagné was instrumental in helping him relax.

“I truly believe I’m a better synchro partner than an individual diver because he calms me,” said Imbeau-Dulac.

“I feel like he’s my little brother.”

“I was just trying to make jokes across the event,” said Gagné, about his strategy to keep his partner loose. 

Gagné, 20, now has two silver medals at these Commonwealth Games, including a silver from Thursday’s individual 3m springboard.

He said that experience helped him with Friday’s synchro event.

“Stability in an event like this is key because it’s such a high level that one mistake and you’re out for a potential medal,” said Gagné, “I think we were really stable across our list and that’s why we ended up with a silver.”

In the men’s 10m synchro platform, Bryden Hattie, of Victoria, and Rylan Wiens, of Saskatoon, Sask., were sixth. 

“It’s our first Commonwealth Games and I guess we’re both pretty young,” said Wiens, who turned 16 years-old in January, “It was pretty sweet to just go out there and compete against the big guys and get some experience under our belt.”    

Hattie, also 16, was happy to have a teammate to roll with.

“We kind of experienced everything together, so that we knew what we were both going into,” said Hattie. 

Saturday is the final day of diving competition, with Olympians Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel hitting the women’s 3m springboard, followed by 2016 Olympian Vincent Riendeau leading fellow Canadians Tyler Henschel, and Wiens in the men’s 10m platform. 

https://results.gc2018.com/en/diving/daily-schedule-date=2018-04-13.htm 

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For more information:

Maelle Dancause

Manager, Communications

Diving Plongeon Canada

C: 514-475-4540 | maelle@diving.ca