A Cheerful Fifth Place
Montréal, March 1, 2024 – Canada was represented by an all-Montréal quartet in the team diving competition at the Diving World Cup in Montréal late Friday afternoon. Éloïse Bélanger, Amélie-Laura Jasmin, Benjamin Tessier, and Cédric Fofana, who all train with the CAMO Club, finished fifth with 378.20 points. For Bélanger, Jasmin, and Tessier, it was their first World Cup experience.
The Chinese team won the event.
Beyond the results, the Canadians were particularly focused on the fun aspect of the competition.
“We wanted to enjoy ourselves while winning it, and we managed to do the former, because we were really focused on having a good time. That’s the most important thing. We have good chemistry together, and I think that showed through during the event,” said Fofana.
“The team competition is kind of a bonus event, in the sense that it doesn’t count for our individual events. Our approach is to have fun. We make the most of it,” added Bélanger.
Jasmin and Fofana got the competition off to a strong start with their first individual dives on the 3m springboard. Canada was provisionally ranked third after the first round.
However, halfway through the competition, the Jasmin-Fofana duo struggled with its synchronized dive, and the team moved down to sixth place. On the 10m platform, Bélanger and Tessier moved the team back up a spot, allowing Canada to finish fifth.
“We did well individually, but we didn’t get much of a chance to practice our synchronized dive. However, I’m still satisfied with what we accomplished today [Friday]. We’re disappointed that we didn’t do well on the synchronized dive, but not as disappointed as we would have been if we had messed up our individual dives,” explained Fofana.
“Over the past two weeks, we only practiced the synchronized dive two or three times, at the most. The expectations are lower than for the individual dives,” added Jasmin.
In addition to a lack of practice, morphological differences can also add an element of challenge to a synchronized diving competition such as today’s.
“With Éloïse, it’s tougher to be synchronized. I’m taller than she is, so it’s difficult to time the dive and appear to be one single person in the air,” explained Tessier.
The Chinese team (506.35 points) was accompanied on the podium by Great Britain (438.05 points) and Australia (405.70 points), who finished second and third, respectively.
McKay, Miller, and Fofana in Sunday’s final
Today’s program also included the preliminary rounds of several individual competitions. Three Canadian athletes qualified for Sunday’s finals.
In the women’s 10 platform event, Caeli McKay finished first in her group with a total of 352.15 points. The score puts her in third place overall, behind Hongchan Quan and Yuxi Chen of China, who won gold and silver, respectively, at the World Championships in Doha in February.
“My dives went well all day today, and what’s more, I still have energy left for the final! I’m going to do everything I can to make it to the podium on Sunday. All my toughest opponents are here, and the level of competition is really high,” said McKay.
Kate Miller also broke the top twelve with 308.05 points and a tenth-place finish. She too advances to the final.
“My dives were very consistent, and I felt really confident. I’m very excited to compete in the final. It was my goal for this weekend, so mission accomplished! I’m really proud of myself! I wanted to enjoy myself this weekend, at this competition which is so close to home,” said Miller, of Ottawa.
In the women’s 10m qualifications, Éloïse Bélanger finished 16th with 241.65 points.
In the men’s 3m event, Cédric Fofana fed off the crowd’s energy to take tenth place in the preliminary rounds, with 387.75 points.
“My first three dives were solid, which gave me a bit of leeway for the next ones. I finished with my most difficult dive, which gave me a lot of points. I’m glad to have qualified for the final in front of my parents. I’m very, very happy,” said Fofana.
Bryden Hattie came very close to securing his ticket to the final, finishing 13th with 375.90 points. His ranking makes him the first reserve diver for the final.
Zongyuan Wang of China dominated the men’s event, earning a score of 522.15.
On Thursday, Pamela Ware and Aimee Wilson qualified for the women’s 3m final, while Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens did likewise in the men’s platform event.
