March 28, 2004
Despatie wins men's 3m event; Heymans takes women's tower
Trent Edwards
Alexandre Despatie would have to be the exception that proved the rule Saturday at the senior winter diving nationals at the Talisman Centre.
After seven weeks of jetting around the world for meets and training, including a meet in Moscow two weeks ago and a meet in Madrid last week, Canada's best divers are tired. Except for the 18-year-old wunderkind from Laval, Que., it showed.
"We're very tired," said Despatie. "Physically it's hard, but mentally it's really tough to keep diving for so long. When you compete you want to do well, but after every competition there's a bit of a down that follows."
Not that anyone in the audience could tell Despatie was exhausted, as he twisted and flipped past his competition in the three-metre final Saturday afternoon, leading from start to finish and ending up with 721.95 points, 77 better than second-place Philippe Comtois of Montreal (644.67).
Arturo Miranda finished third with 630.21 points.
Calgary's Erik Petursson finished fifth with 592.86 points after landing his final two dives awkwardly, dropping a place each time. He hopes to reach his goal of finishing in the top-four when he dives today in his final event, 10-metre tower.
"I wanted to do better today, but now it all rests on tower for me," said Petursson.
Despatie plans to dive in the men's 10-metre final today at 2 p.m.
Later in the afternoon, Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Que., won the 10-metre women's final. Heymans, 22, led from the first dive after finishing the semifinals in second place, but failed to make any spectacular dives.
She finished with 513.45 points, almost 50 points ahead of second-place finisher Myriam Boileau of Montreal.
"I'm not very happy. But I guess I've had a hard month," said Heymans.
"I couldn't move that much (because) I didn't have much energy. I'm not really proud of myself, but I guess it was enough."
Her coach, Michel Larouche of Montreal's Camo dive club, expects better from Heymans.
"Not good enough to beat the rest of the world, but good enough to beat the rest of Canada," said Larouche. "She hasn't dived to the level she's capable of. She doesn't seem to have the energy to compete. She's here because she has to be."
Larouche is giving Heymans a week off in Cuba to recharge after the meet.
"I'm going to be on the beach, tanning," says Heymans. First, however, Heymans plans to compete in the three-metre final today at 4 p.m.
Canada's other medal threat for the 2004 Summer Olympic Games at Athens in August decided only to compete in today's three-metre event.
"It's been a long seven weeks, so I decided not to do the synchro event (Saturday)," said Blythe Hartley, 21, of North Vancouver, B.C.
tedwards@theherald.canwest.com
une page mise en ligne le 28 mars 2004 par SVP
