Canada wins five more medals at junior Pan am diving championships

September 11, 2009

CALGARY – Pamela Ware of Montreal earned her second medal in two days while Morgan Weller of North Vancouver, Myriam Selmani of Laval, Que., C.J. Moore of Kitchener, Ont., and Frederique Lalonde of Repentigny, Que., also stepped on the podium Friday at the junior Pan Am diving championships.

On women’s three-metre in the 16-18 age group, Michelle Cabassol of the U.S., won the gold medal with 456.80 points. She edged Ware by only 0.3 points at 456.50. Loren Figueora of the U.S., was third at 449.55. Hailey Casper of Calgary was fifth at 410.70.

Ware was third entering the last round in the final and nailed her reverse dive for 8.5’s and 9.0’s.

“The reverse dive is one I’m very confident with and that’s why I put it last,” said Ware, 16, also second on one-metre on Thursday. “The whole event went really well for me and I hope I can get another medal on tower tomorrow (Saturday).”

There were two Canadian medallists in the women’s 14-15 one-metre. Kassidy Cook of the U.S., won the gold at 350.45, Weller was second at 343.20 and Selmani was third at 342.35.

Weller has been battling a shoulder injury all season and this was the best she’s felt in quite some time.

“I was able to pull it together for this competition,” said Weller, 15. “It’s so great to end a tough season on such a high note. It was pretty difficult to come back from the injury. It was quite painful when I competed earlier this season but today I felt much better.”

Selmani wasn’t pleased with her opening compulsory dives but cameback strong on her optionals.

“I think I was too nervous at the start,” said Selmani, who won four medals at the Canada Games last month in PEI. “I was able to calm myself down in time.”

In the men’s 14-15 platform, Moore earned big marks on his opening dives and took the silver with 415.90 points. Only Jose Diego Balleza of Mexico was better at 423.65. Dylan Grisell of Toronto missed a podium berth by three points finishing fourth. “My optionals went really well,” said Moore. “But it was my backward dive late in the competition that really helped me get the medal. It’s a thrill to win my first international medal).”

In the 12-13 platform, Lalonde earned the bronze while Michelle Piper Kulak of Edmonton was sixth. “I had some trouble early on,” said Lalonde. “It was important that I didn’t lose my focus.”

Other Canadian results Friday, Aidan Faminoff of Victoria and Peter Thach Mai of Montreal were fifth and seventh in boys under 11 three-metre and Shane Miszkiel of Victoria and Cody Yano of Edmonton were seventh and eighth on men’s 16-18 one-metre.

The U.S., leads the medal count with six gold, three silver and six bronze. Mexico is at 5-3-0, Colombia third at 2-2-4 and Canada at 0-5-3).

Competition continues through to Sunday.

Full results available at: www.diving.ca

On-site contact: Jeff Feeney, Dive Canada, (613) 668-9668

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reprinted with permission