Madrid: Peter Thach Mai fourth at FINA Diving Grand Prix
Peter Thach Mai of Montreal placed fourth on men’s three-metre and Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., reached the women’s 10-m final on Saturday at the opening stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.
Briadam Herrera of the U.S. won the gold medal on men’s three-metre with 456.80 points, Yona Knight-Wisdom of Jamaica was second at 441.40 and Steele Johnson of the U.S. third at 440.15.
Thach Mai re-injured his back in training this week and did better than he expected earning 420.35.
“I got very stressed in the final after a comfortable prelim and semis,” he said. “But the coaches gave me great support. I was surprised with my performance but there’ a lot of ground to make up on the leaders.”
Thomas Ciprik of Pointe- Claire, Que., was 17th in the prelims and did not advance.
On women’s 10-m tower, Toth was fourth in the prelims with 282.35 and fifth in the semis with 293.80 to advance to Sunday’s final.
“Today was a bit of an off day but we did the work and got the job done to make finals,” said Toth. “I’m looking forward to improve upon my dives in the final. This event schedule is a bit out of the ordinary. It’s hard to have a prelim and the semi one day then keep the energy up for the final the next day.”
Competition ends Sunday.