July 21, 2017
Leathead et Leclerc montrent des signes prometteurs dans la victoire aux championnats nationaux juniors élites 2017
Diving – MONTREAL – If they both qualify for this fall’s Pan Am Junior Championships, Simone Leathead and Mélodie Leclerc would love nothing more than to represent Canada on the international stage on women’s three-metre synchro.
The Montreal pair made a sparkling debut on Thursday winning the gold medal in the opening event at the 2017 Junior Elite Nationals diving competition being held this weekend at the Claude-Robillard Centre.
‘’I definitely think we have the ability to continue diving together in the future,’’ said Leclerc. ‘’We’ve trained together for the last few years under the same coach. We are pretty much the same height and our styles work well.’’
However it is their individual performances over the next three days which will determine their fate for the Junior Pan Ams set for September 28 to October 1 in Victoria.
Leathead and Leclerc totalled 262.26 points edging Ashley McCool and Margo Erlam of Calgary in second at 261.27. Mia Vallée of Beaconsfield, Que., and Sarah Jodoin Di Maria of Montreal were third at 252.27.
‘’We’ve only been practicing together for a month so our expectations were not high,’’ said Leathead. ‘’But it went extremely well and we are very satisfied. On our second and fourth dives we even got some 9.0’s so those were the highlights.’’
In men’s three-metre synchro, Thomas Ciprik of Pointe-Claire and Laurent Gosselin-Paradis of Montreal, also a first-time partnership, took the gold with 277.38.
Victor Povzner of and Joshua Inglis of London, Ont., were second at 272.04 and Yohan Eskrick and Tazman Abramowicz of Calgary were third at 270.96.
Ciprik and Gosselin-Paradis nailed their opening compulsory dive for 8.5’s and 9.0’s.
‘’It’s one of the easier dives but our execution was really solid and that impressed the judges,’’ said Ciprik. ‘’It definitely gave us a lot more confidence for the harder rounds to follow.’’
The pair, like many of the competitors here, are also tuning up for the Canada Games which start next week in Winnipeg.
‘’My partner was injured earlier this season and Thomas has been a great since we joined together four weeks ago,’’ said Gosselin-Paradis. ‘’Our coach was so impressed in training that we felt confident we could do well at nationals.’’
Full results: Integrated Sports Systems Live Diving
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