September
22, 2000
Seeing double
By PATRICIA YOUNG
Globe and Mail Update
Sydney, Australia — Canadian divers Edmonton's Eryn
Bulmer and Vancouver's Blythe Hartley finished out of the medals in the new synchronized
three-metre diving event. But head coach Mitch Geller felt it was a good warm-up for the
individual events.
This is the first Olympic Games that synchronized diving
has been on the program. It requires two divers to perform identical dives from the
10-metre platform. The teams are scored on form and how well they duplicate each other's
motions.
The event was won by the Russian pair of Vera Ilina and
Ioulia Pakhalina with a final tally of 332.64. China's team of Fu Mingxia and Guo Jingjing
took silver with a score of 321.60. The bronze went to the Ukraine's Ganna Sorokina and
Olena Zhupina (290.34)
Bulmer, who has won 10 national titles and has been one
of this country's top divers the last four years, and Hartley, a relative newcomer,
finished fifth (279.00) behind Australians Chantelle Michell and Loudy Tourky who scored
283.05.
"The team is not known until we after the divers
have been selected at the (Olympic) trials," Geller said. "They have only been
practicing together since June. The good thing here is that they get to do this before
their (individual) events and get used things here."
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