Alexandre Despatie and Emilie Heymans
win silver medals at Canada Cup

Louis Daignault

VICTORIA, May 1, 2004 - World champion Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., earned one perfect 10 and took the silver medal on women’s 10-metre tower Saturday while Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., was also second on men’s three-metres at the 12-country Canada Cup diving competition.

The meet is also the sixth of nine stops on the FINA Grand Prix circuit.

On women’s 10-metre tower, Ting Li of China was the winner at 422.91 with Heymans, the reigning world champion in the event, second at 412.74 and Loudy Tourky of Australia third at 369.84.

Heymans earned one perfect mark and a string of 9.5’s on a reverse three and a half, one of the hardest in the books. Her total score for the dive 94.86 points, the best single dive score of the day. Li earned 10’s from all seven judges on her back two and a half but because the degree of difficulty is lower it totalled 87 points.

‘’The reverse dive is one I’ve always done well in practice but had trouble with in competition,’’ said Heymans. ‘’So it was very satisfying to land it so well. It’s been a very stressful week. We’ve been practicing very hard and this was the first day I’ve felt pretty good.’’

Myriam Boileau of Pointe-Claire, Que., continued her strong comeback from serious back surgery with her best performance this year. She was eliminated in the semifinals and was eighth overall.

‘’This is the first competition this year that I’ve really performed well,’’ said Boileau, the 1997 World Cup champion on tower. ‘’I’m disappointed of course that I didn’t reach the final but I managed my competition really well, especially my stress level. The back does not bother me at all.’’

On men’s three-metre, Ken Terauchi of Japan took the gold medal with 501.06 points while Despatie, the World Cup champion in the event earlier this year, was second at 498.75. Kenan Wang of China was third at 497.22 and his compatriot Feng Wang fourth at 493.65.

‘’It was one heck of a competition and it came right down to the final dive,’’ said Despatie, 18, who possibly squandered the gold with a small mistake on his fifth of six dives in the final. ‘’Overall I was very pleased. I’m sort of in a training mode right now and I was focusing on different aspects of my dives.’’

Despatie competed despite a sore right shoulder which kept him off the tower event on Friday.

‘’It’s an injury that has bothered me for awhile and not competing on tower really helped me today,’’ he said. ‘’But it feels much better and I’m hopeful I can compete on both three and 10-metres next weekend (at a Grand Prix in Texas).’’

Philippe Comtois of Laval was eliminated in the semifinal and placed ninth overall.

Competition ends Sunday.

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