Tatianna Conn wins gold with big scores on last dive
WINNIPEG – Tatianna Conn of Calgary earned a series of 9.0’s on her last dive to win the gold medal on women’s platform in the 14-15 age group on Thursday to open the 2018 Junior Elite Nationals diving competition.
Conn tabulated 362.55 points and met the standard for the world junior championships later this year. Simone Leathead of Montreal took the silver at 319.00 and Romane Saito, also of Montreal, was third at 318.35.
In the third and final round, Conn nailed her reverse two and half to solidify her lead.
‘’I’ve been having a bit of trouble with the dive at this pool this week so I’m glad to finish this strong,’’ said Conn. ‘’I was really nervous for it but I managed to pull it off.’’
All four synchro finals were also held on Friday.
On men’s 10m synchro, Laurent Gosselin-Paradis of Montreal and Nathan Zsombor-Murray of Pointe-Claire, Que., also met the standard for the world juniors with 326.28.
‘’To beat the standard by 25 points we couldn’t be happier,’’ said Gosselin-Paradis. ‘’Nathan didn’t miss any dives and was the key to our victory. We haven’t been together long but we really complement each other well.’’
Nerves also set in for Zsombor-Murray.
‘’I was pretty nervous going in,’’ said Zsombor-Murray. ‘’My warm-ups weren’t that good so it’s good to know I can deliver under those conditions. We’ve really adapted well to each other’s technique.’’
On women’s 10-m synchro, Tereza Vithoulkas and Mélodie Leclerc of Montreal placed first with 244.26. Jocelyn Gallais and Joelle Gallais of Regina were second at 216.90.
‘’Our performance went pretty well except for missing one dive,’’ said Vithoulkas. ‘’We started two months ago practicing synchro. We have similar techniques so we thought we would be a good mix together.’’
On women’s three-metre synchro, Olivia Chamandy and Mia Vallée of Montreal took top spot with 265.41. Alyssa Clairmont and Paige McKenzie of Regina were second at 232.02 and Quinn Gariepy and Elizabeth Dececco of Saskatoon were third at 223.14.
‘’We dove better than we had all week in practice but we were hoping to reach the qualifying score for the world juniors,’’ said Vallée. ‘’We missed our first dive and that hurt our score and we tried to make up for it but just fell short.’’
On men’s three-metre synchro, Henry McKay of Ottawa and Victor Povzner of Maple, Ont., were first at 283.80. Alexandre Corriveau of Montreal and Cedric Fofana of Quebec City were second at 264.96 and Frederic Gosselin and Mathieu Aubin of Montreal third at 261.66.
‘’We got some really nice pop on our dives but our entries could have been sharper,’’ said Povzner. ‘’Still it definitely felt like we got good synchro in most of our dives.’’
Competition continues through to Sunday at Pan Am Pool.
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Full results: Integrated Sports Systems Live Diving