Diving Canada – Caeli McKay and Vincent Riendeau saved the day for Canada with a bronze medal in the mixed 10m synchro platform, on Day 2 at the FINA Diving World Series in Kazan, Russia. 

In only their second competition together, the Canadians scored 312.42 points, and were narrowly beaten by North Korea’s Hyon Il Myong and Jo Jin Mi who won the silver medal with 314.28 points. 

China’s Duan Yu and Zhang Minjie won the event with 339.42 points. 

“Vince and I are really happy, especially since this is only our second event together. We fit very well as a team and I think being so close outside of diving really helps with our communication and teamwork in this event,” said Calgary’s McKay.

Canada was shut out of the medals on Day 1 in Russia.

“Our first optional and especially our last optional were very strong. We knew that on the last dive we were only a few tenths behind the Russians,” said McKay. 

McKay, 19, and Riendeau, 22, lifted themselves onto the podium with their final dive, overtaking Nikita Shleikher and Iuliia Timoshinina of Russia. 

“Caeli and I are both quite satisfied with our second performance together. We changed a dive in our list and did 207C instead of 107B which adds 0.3 to our total degree of difficulty. We think it paid off today and we’re looking forward to competing again in London,” said Riendeau, from Beaconsfield, Que.

Ville Mont-Royal, Que.’s Philippe Gagné, 21, was the other finalist on Saturday night in Kazan, and finished sixth in the men’s 3m springboard final with 425.30 points. 

Earlier in the day Olympian François Imbeau-Dulac was fourth (407.50 points) and one spot behind Gagné in semifinal B and did not move on to the evening final. 

Also earlier, McKay was fifth in semifinal A of the women’s individual 10m platform with 297.05 points, and didn’t advance to the final, “I felt very strong this morning and only missed one dive, I was only a few points from making finals so that hurt a little bit. I’m proud of how I was able to be composed and consistent in my individual event even with one very bad dive,” said McKay.

Jack Laugher of Great Britain won the men’s springboard while China’s Zhang Minjie took gold in the women’s platform. 

Canada’s senior national team will try to add to their medal count on the final day in Kazan with Olympians Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware in the women’s 3m springboard, while Riendeau is the lone Canadian in the individual 10m platform event.  

Imbeau-Dulac and Abel will team up for the mixed 3m synchro to close Diving World Series #4.

Full results can be found here: http://omegatiming.com/Competition?id=0001130003FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&sport=AQ&year=

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For more information:

 

Maëlle Dancause

Manager, Public Relations

Diving Plongeon Canada

C: 514-475-4540 | maelle@diving.ca