Diving – TAIPEI – Canadian diver Ashley McCool ended her climb in the women’s three-metre standings in fifth place on Saturday at the World University Games.

Arantxa Sanchez of Mexico won the gold medal with 327.85 points, Brooke Schultz of the U.S. was second at 323.05 and Suji Kim of South Korea third at 309.90.

On Friday, McCool, from Cochrane, Alta.,  was 16^th after the morning preliminaries with 255.70 points. The top-18 advanced. She rocketed to eighth in the afternoon semis with 267.85. The top-12 advanced to the final.

In the final, she produced the third and second best dives in the last two rounds to finish fifth at 289.05.

‘’I improved on three dives in the final,’’ said McCool, 17, a freshman at Arizona State University. ‘’I had no expectations for this competition, I certainly didn’t expect to make the final.’’

McCool wasn’t 100 percent going into the event.

‘’I wasn’t sleeping well and my back was sore,’’ she said. ‘’Without the help of our physio team and support staff I definitely wouldn’t have made it this far.’’

On men’s 10-metre tower, Tyler Henschel of Edmonton (Texas A&M University) is headed to the final after placing ninth in the preliminaries and eighth in the semifinals scoring 394.00 and 408.60.

The diving event ends at the Games Sunday with the men’s tower final and the mixed team event with Henschel and Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont. (University of Victoria). Toth won the bronze on tower earlier this week.

Full results: https://www.2017.taipei/home