April 17, 2008

Canada opens international junior diving competition with two medals

AACHEN, Germany – Pamela Ware of Longueuil, Que., and Rachel Kemp of Victoria earned silver and bronze medals respectively on women’s platform Thursday at the annual Lambertz-Springen junior diving competition.

On women’s platform in the 14-15 age group, Megan Sylvester of Britain won the gold medal with 355.90 points. Ware, the defending champion, scored 8.0’s on two of her three dives to take the silver at 344.60 while Kemp delivered a consistent performance for the bronze at 338.45.

"I was very pleased with my performance," said Ware, 15, a bronze medallist in the event at the Pan Am junior championships last year. "My last dive was the one I was most satisfied with. I had been messing it up all week in training."

Kemp, 15, was first after the preliminaries.

"I’m happy with my third place," said Kemp, a member of the 2006 Commonwealth Games team at age 13. "It’s a tough competition with only three optional dives in the final and I didn’t mess up any of them so that was very positive for me."

Angelina Kroupko of Edmonton was ninth in the preliminaries but didn’t advance due to a limit of two per country in the final.

On women’s one-metre in the 16-18 age group, Hailey Casper of Calgary took fourth spot missing a berth on the podium by less than 15 points while Sabrina Beaupré of Longueuil, was 10th.

"This is Hailey’s second time here and she is quickly understanding the international scene and is not being intimidated by it," said Canadian coach Scott Cranham.

In men’s three-metre synchro, François Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., and Maxim Bouchard of St-Constant, Que., competed for the first time together and were sixth out of 15 entries.

On men’s three-three metre in the 14-15 age group, Olivier Morneau-Ricard of Quebec City reached the final and was 10th. Cole Miler of Regina and Frederic Hebert of Terrebonne, Que., were eliminated in the prelims placing 17th and 22nd respectively. All three were making their international debuts.

Competition continues Friday with four more finals scheduled.

reprinted with permission