Jennifer Abel wins hard-fought bronze at diving Grand Prix

Jennifer Abel wins hard-fought bronze at diving Grand Prix

ROSTOCK, Germany – Canada’s Jennifer Abel emerged with the bronze medal in a hotly contested women’s three-metre final on Saturday at the opening stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.

It was Canada’s second medal of the competition after Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal took gold on 10-m tower on Friday. The standings were all decided in the fifth and last round as Abel, China’s Lin Qu and Italy’s Tania Cagnotto entered that round in a near dead heat for top spot.Qu was the only one of the three to nail her last dive and took the gold with 341.25. Cagnotto, the leader heading into the last round, received 6.5’s and 7.0’s for her inward dive and won the silver at 341.05 while Abel struggled with her twisting to dive to finish third at 336.30. ‘’I’m a little disappointed with my last dive,’’ said Abel. ‘’It’s a dive I’ve recently added to my list and I can certainly improve upon it.’’ Abel, from Laval, Que., was solid on her first four dives in the final and was less than two points behind Cagnotto – the leader at the time- going into the last round. "Overall it went very well,’’ said Abel. ‘’The start of the season is always a bit harder for me but today it went the way I wanted.’’

Pamela Ware of Beloeil, Que., was also in the final and placed sixth. On men’s 10-m synchro, Philippe Gagné of Montreal and Vincent Riendeau of Pointe-Claire, Que., were fourth with 370.34 about 30 points from third place

Competition ends Sunday.

Full results: http://www.sportlicht.net/live/result.php?event_id=139