24 medals for Canada divers at the 2021 UANA Junior Pan American Diving Championships
Sixteen of Canada’s next generation of diving stars, all aged 18 and under, took part in the 2021 UANA Junior Pan American Diving Championships in Tucson, Arizona from October 7th to 10th. The young Canadian divers combined their efforts for an impressive 24 medal haul: 7 gold, 8 silver and 5 bronze, with Canada earning third place in the final country rankings.
“This is probably one of the best Pan Am Juniors that I have attended. We saw great performances and quality dives but above all else, our team spirit was incredible. Our athletes were the only ones to remain at the pool all day, every day, to cheer on their teammates”, recounted Andrée Pouliot-Deschamps, Junior High Performance Director at Diving Plongeon Canada.
Many divers stood out over the course of the event, in particular, triple medallists Lila Stewart (Regina, SK), who also won best female diver for Group C (13-14 years old), Sonya Palkhivala (Pointe-Claire, QC) and Benjamin Tessier (Blainville, QC) as well as Matt Cullen (Blainville, QC), who took home two gold medals.
Travelling with the team for the event were coaches Devon Butters (Plongeon l’Envol), Isabelle Cloutier (Club de Plongeon Camo), Gilles Emptoz-Lacote (Toronto Diving Academy), Tommy McLeod (Boardworks Diving) and Jim Wynne (Pointe-Claire Diving Club).
Results and quotes (sorted by province and alphabetical order):
ALBERTA
Luc Goertzen (Calgary, AB | Dive Calgary)
• gold – 3m C
• bronze – 1m C
“I’m very excited, I wasn’t expecting to medal. I just wanted to come out here and have fun, not stressing it out have helped. In the upcoming weeks I’ll be working on new dives, a new list and start some 10m, that should be fun! Also try to qualify for more international competitions.”
BRITISH COLOMBIA
Renee Batalla (Victoria, BC | Boardworks Diving Club)
• gold – platform B
“It was fun and one of my first major competitions outside of Canada. It’s amazing to be competing in person again against the other countries, the adrenaline is way more present than when you compete virtually. And I made new friendships with Mexico and Colombia.”
Keira Lu (Victoria, BC | Boardworks Diving Club)
• silver – 1m B
• 7th – 3m B
“These are my second Pan Ams, I was eleven back then and now I am fifteen, I feel like I understand diving a lot more now that I am older and enjoyed cheering everyone on. All my dives were pretty solid on 1-metre, I finished with a great back one-and-a-half so I’m really happy.”
Ben Smyth (Victoria, BC | Boardworks Diving Club)
• bronze – 1m A
• 6th – 3m A
“I’m happy, I thought to myself it was all about what I put in and didn’t have to worry about the other guys. I put down all my dives that I needed to, I went into the competition knowing I had the lowest degree of difficulty, but it didn’t stop me from putting in my dives.”
ONTARIO
Alexa Fung (Scarborough, ON | Toronto Diving Academy)
• 4th – 1m B
• silver – 3m B
“All my compulsories were really good, and I was pretty happy about my optionals. My first event was a bit disappointing, so finishing with a silver feels great.”
Katelyn Fung (Arva, ON |Forest City Diving Club)
• silver – 10m synchro A/B (with Julianne Boisvert)
• bronze – platform A
• 4th – 1m A
“I’m pretty pleased with my performance, my optionals have improved quite a bit. I’m preparing for Junior Worlds and it will be better. These are my last Junior Pan Ams, the cheering is always outstanding and it’s nice to see our friends from other countries.”
Emmitt Reesor (Waterloo, ON | Toronto Diving Academy)
• silver – 1m B
• 8th – 3m B
“Overall, I think my 1-metre event went really well. It is really cool to be competing against other countries, especially after the pandemic.”
SASKATCHEWAN
Lila Stewart (Regina, SK | Regina Diving Club)
• silver – platform C
• silver – 1m C
• bronze – 3m C
“There are a bunch of dives that I am really proud of, but also have some things that I can take with me to training and improve for my future competitions. I’m very happy, I came into this event hoping to get at least one, maybe two medals. I was not expecting to get three medals at an international event, it just feels amazing.”
QUÉBEC
Julianne Boisvert (Mirabel, QC | Plongeon l’Envol)
• gold – 3m synchro A/B (with Sonya Palkhivala)
• silver – 10m synchro (with Katelyn Fung)
• 4th – 3m A
• 4th – platform A
Chris Booler (Beaconsfield, QC | Pointe-Claire Diving Club)
• 6th – 1m B
• 6th – 3m B
Dean Calfacacos (Roxboro, QC |Pointe-Claire Diving Club)
• silver – 3m C
• silver – platform C
“I felt like I had more experience since I competed at Pan Ams in 2019. I wasn’t as nervous; I already knew what was gonna go down so it was more exciting. I really enjoyed competing against Arnaud (Corbeil), we kind of formed a team and helped each other rip our dives.”
Arnaud Corbeil (Terrebonne, QC | Club de plongeon Camo)
• gold – platform C
• 4th – 3m C
“I was well prepared but I was still nervous. I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished. I have more experience than I did in 2019, which helped me manage my emotions better. I also felt like I wasn’t competing against Dean (Calfacacos), we were just cheering each other on throughout the competition.”
Matt Cullen (Rosemère, QC| Plongeon l’Envol)
• gold – 10m synchro A/B (with Benjamin Tessier)
• gold – platform A
“Our stress level was pretty high because we know how good the USA is; but we powered through and we won first place. We’ve only been training synchro together for a month, we said yes to this opportunity as preparation for the Junior World Championships”, Matt Cullen, commenting his gold medal in the 10m synchro A/B.
“I am really happy with my performance. I trained really hard for this. This is good preparation for the World Junior Championships, to see the other countries, how they are diving. This stress level isn’t as high but it’s a great preparation”, Matt Cullen on his gold medal at 10m.
Éloi Houle (Montréal, QC | Club de plongeon Camo)
• silver – platform D
• 4th – 3m D
• 5th – 1m D
“It’s a great experience. I met new people and had really nice time. I am very proud of myself. My list didn’t have a high degree of difficulty but I was still able to get on the podium.”
Sonya Palkhivala (Pointe-Claire, QC | Pointe-Claire Diving Club)
• gold – 3m synchro A/B (with Julianne Boisvert)
• gold – 3m A
• silver – 1m A
“I was very nervous at first, finally getting the opportunity to compete after Covid. I broke my finger during training a week before coming to Tucson, but me and my coach really worked hard to put that behind me and focus on my event here.”
Benjamin Tessier (Blainville, QC | Club de plongeon Camo)
• gold – 10m synchro A/B (with Matt Cullen)
• silver – platform A
• bronze – 3m A
“The event went really well despite some ups and downs. It was our first synchro event together on the platform. We’ve been diving teammates since we’ve been very young but our synchro partnership only started a month ago. We are going to work on the stuff that didn’t go well for the Junior Worlds in a few weeks”, Benjamin Tessier, commenting on his gold medal at 10m synchro.