April 18, 2008

Double gold for Canada’s Pamela Ware at junior international diving competition

AACHEN, Germany – Pamela Ware of Longueuil, Que., is letting her diving to the talking this week at the annual Lambertz-Springen junior diving competition.

Ware, who is battling a throat infection, took the gold medal in the women’s three-metre springboard in the 14-15 age group on Friday then combined forces with Sabrina Beaupré of Longueuil for another victory on women’s three-metre synchro.

In the individual three-metre, Ware was the winner with 363.45 points. Rachel Kemp of Victoria took the silver at 346.60 and Matilda Dankler of Sweden was third at 345.55. Ware is up to three medals this week while Kemp stepped on the podium for the second time. They were second and third respectively in Thursday’s platform final.

"That was just amazing," said Ware. "I felt very confident. My inward three and half was the highlight for me because I had been having a lot of trouble with it but I did well today so I was really happy. I’m doing better this week than I would have thought."

Kemp was pleased with her performance.

"I hit all my optionals and compulsories in prelims and that really helped me going into the final," said Kemp. "In the final, there was some pressure because my first dive didn’t go so well and my reverse was my next dive which is usually troublesome for me. But I hit it and that helped me get the medal."

Angelina Kroupko of Edmonton was fourth in the preliminaries but only two per country can advance to the final. Kemp and Ware were 1-2 respectively after prelims.

In the women’s three-metre synchro, Beaupré and Ware earned 271.68 points to top an eight-team field. They were fourth at the Pan Am Championships last year.

"It went very well," said Beaupré. "We were patient, consistent and dove well. We hadn’t trained together since the junior Pan Ams but we hooked up again a couple of days ago here. It’s a surprising result for us and it was fun."

In men’s platform in the 14-15 age group, Cole Miller of Regina and Olivier Morneau-Ricard of Quebec City were sixth and eighth respectively in the final. In the prelims, Miller was fourth, Morneau-Ricard fifth and Frederic Hebert of Terrebonne, Que., sixth.

On men’s one-metre in the 16-18 age group, Maxim Bouchard of St-Constant, Que., and Cam McLean of Winnipeg were eighth and 11th respectively in the final.

"It’s a really good show by our divers," said Canadian coach Scott Cranham

reprinted with permission