Bronze medal for Benfeito and Filion at diving World Series

Bronze medal for Benfeito and Filion at diving World Series

BEIJING – Olympic medallists Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval won bronze on Friday to open the first stop on the FINA World Series diving circuit being held at the Water Cube built for the 2008 Games.

World champions Ruolin Chen and Huixia Liu of China took the gold medal with 345.36 points, Mun Yee Leong and Jun Hoong Cheong of Malaysia were second at 320.28 and the Canadians followed in third at 310.86.

"Overall we are satisfied, it was better than our performance last month at the Grand Prix," said Filion. 

"There are small details we need to work out and we certainly would like to have our fourth dive back.  Our training has been strong and that needs to be better reflected in competition."

Philippe Gagné of Montreal competed on both the three-metre synchro and 10-m synchro on Friday.  He was sixth with Vincent Riendeau of Pointe-Claire, Que., on tower and seventh with François Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., on springboard.

"I’m feeling pretty tired," said Gagné, 17, a double medallist at the Youth Olympics last year.  "It’s certainly more difficult to do two completely different events on the same day.  I was actually more satisfied with our performance three-metre because our diving was more consistent."

Riendeau agreed with Gagné there were errors and a lack of energy on 10-metre synchro.  Riendeau will also compete this weekend in the inaugural 10-m mixed synchro with Benfeito.

"We’ve been training for two months and it’s going really well," said Riendeau.  "We’re certainly looking forward to being part of that event."

Jennifer Abel of Laval and Pamela Ware of Beloeil, Que., were fifth on women’s three-metre synchro.

Competition continues through to Sunday.

Full results: http://www.omegatiming.com/Sport?sport=AQ