Young Canadian tandem shows promise to open
Canada Cup Grand Prix diving competition

Louis Daignault

VICTORIA, April 29, 2004 - Competing against a field that included Olympic, world and World Cup champions, Wegadesk Gorup-Paul of Victoria and Kevin Geyson of Winnipeg held their own in their international debut as a tandem on men’s synchronized 10-metre tower on Thursday at the Canada Cup Grand Prix diving competition.

Liang Tian- the Olympic tower champion from 2000- and Yang Jinghui of China won the gold medal compiling 361.20 points. Tian and Jinghui won the gold at the World Cup final this past February at the Olympic pool in Athens. World champions Mathew Helm and Robert Newbery of Australia were second at 342.48 and Mark Ruiz and Kyle Prandi of the U.S., third at 324.48.

Gorup-Paul and Geyson were sixth out of six entries at 278.40.

‘’We don’t train together very often but we felt we did well today,’’ said Gorup-Paul, 16. ‘’We have a similar diving technique and that pleased the judges and we got a respectable score. I think we have the potential to one day be a very good team in this event.’’

In the preliminaries on men’s three-metre springboard, Wang Feng of China took the early lead with 458.22 points. His compatriot Kenan Wang stands second at 437.91 and Ken Terauchi of Japan is third at 434.10.

World Cup champion Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., stands fourth at 418.35 and Philippe Comtois of Laval also qualified for the semifinals as he posted the 10th best score at 388.92.

Not advancing are Arturo Miranda of Pointe-Claire, Que., in 16th, Reuben Ross of Edmonton in 20th, Eric Sehn of Edmonton in 21st and Erik Petursson of Calgary in 24th.

In the preliminaries on women’s 10-metre tower, Ting Li of China stands first at 377.07 with Paola Espinosa of Mexico second at 341.40 and world champion Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., third at 330.33.

Myriam Boileau of Pointe-Claire, Que., continued to show improvement in her comeback from serious back surgery and heads to the semis in seventh spot at 309.06. Not advancing are Marie-Čve Marleau of Montreal in 11th, Melanie Rinaldi of Montreal in 14th , Marianne Allaire-Morin of Montreal in 15th and Tori Kennedy of Victoria. Olympic and World Cup champion Laura Wilkinson of the U.S., didn’t advance placing 10th. She was the third best American and only a maximum two per country can advance.

‘’It was a real fight just to get into the semis, that shows how deep the field is here,’’ said Canadian national team coach Mitch Geller. ‘’We have the best divers in the world in every event so for us this is going to be a gauge to see how we continue to prepare for the Olympics.’’

The semis for both men’s three-metre and women’s tower are on Saturday. Competition continues Friday at Saanich Commonwealth Place with preliminaries on women’s three-metres at 10 a.m., (local time) and men’s tower at 12:30 p.m. and finals on women’s synchronized 10-metre at 3 p.m. and men’s synchronized three-metre at 4:30 p.m.

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