May 29, 2017
Two more medals for Canadian divers at FINA Grand Prix
Diving Canada – Sixteen-year-old divers Mia Vallée of Beaconsfield, Que., and Olivia Chamandy of Montreal won the gold medal on women’s three-metre synchro and François Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., added a silver on men’s three-metre on Saturday at the fourth stop on the FINA Grand Prix circuit.
‘’We didn’t expect to win because the other teams were older than us,’’ said Chamandy. ‘’It’s not our best score but we were consistent and all the dives were good.’’
On women’s three-metre synchro, Vallée and Chamandy averaged at least 7.0’s on their five dives to win with 267.78 points. Inge Jansen and Daphne Wils of the Netherlands were second at 267.00 and Villo Kormos and Flora Fazekas-Gondos of Hungary third at 231.12.
‘’The synchronization and quality of their dives was excellent,’’ said Canadian national team coach Aaron Dziver on the winners. ‘’Even though the difficulty of their list was a bit lower than the Dutch their execution was superior and that allowed them to get the gold.’’
On men’s three-metre, Giovanni Tocci of Italy staved off a big challenge from Imbeau-Dulac totalling 419.55. Imbeau-Dulac nearly completed a big comeback but settled for silver at 417.55. Nicolas Garcia Boissier of Spain was third at 375.90.
‘’My final score wasn’t wonderful but overcame my emotions and stress,’’ said Imbeau-Dulac. ‘’That in itself is a victory for me.’’
It was Imbeau-Dulac’s first career Grand Prix medal.
‘’François struggled in the semis but on his last two dives he switched the focus to being more confident and free,’’ said Dziver. ‘’He took that lesson and applied it to the final where he did five great dives out of six.’’
On women’s 10-m tower both Chamandy and Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., qualified for Sunday’s final.
Toth was third in her semifinal heat while Chamandy was second. The top-three in each of the two semis advanced.
Competition ends Sunday.