Caeli McKay of Canada competes during the women's 10m platform preliminary round at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup 2023 in Montreal, Friday, May 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
MONTREAL – Canada’s Pamela Ware and Mia Vallee captured bronze in the women’s three-metre synchronized event at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup on Friday.
Ware, 30, of Greenfield Park, Que., and Vallee, 22, of Beaconsfield, Que., capped off their performance with a two-and-a-half somersault, one twist pike that scored 72.90 points.
The duo had a cumulative score of 302.61, 26.82 behind Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen of China, who won gold.
Americans Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook captured silver, with a score of 315.09.
Earlier in the pool, 21-year-old Bryden Hattie of Victoria advanced to the men’s three-metre springboard final on Sunday by finishing eighth with a 393.90 score in the preliminaries.
Rylan Wiens, of Pike Lake, Sask., and Pointe Claire, Que.’s Nathan Zsombor-Murray finished seventh in the men’s 10-metre platform synchronized event.
“We can’t win them all, obviously, but this is going to push us to work harder, protect our diets even more, train even harder in synchro,” said Wiens, a 21-year-old from Pike Lake, Sask. “We’re hungry for the next one. So yeah, we’ll be there.”
Lian Junjie and Yang Hao of China captured gold, Kirill Boliukh and Oleksii Sereda of Ukraine won silver and Noah Williams and Matthew Lee of Britain earned bronze.
As for what happened on Friday, Zsombor-Murray said a neck injury to Wiens prevented the partners from training as much as they would’ve liked to.
“I don’t really have any excuses for myself, (Rylan) either I think. It wasn’t our day,” said Zsombor-Murray, a 20-year-old from Pointe Claire, Que. “We didn’t have a lot of repetitions together in synchro in the last week “¦ besides that we know how to do our dives together, we know how to do them individually.”
Wiens and Zsmobor-Murray finished with a combined score of 360.99 points, 95.73 behind the leaders.
The duo, which was in second after the first round, steadily dropped in the standings after scoring below expectations on three dives, including a reverse three-and-a-half somersaults tuck for their fifth that scored a 46.92 and saw them drop from sixth to eighth. They earned a 70.80 from the judges on the sixth to move up one spot.
On the second dive, a back dive pike, they scored a 45.60 after falling slightly out of sync. They fell from fourth to sixth place after the fourth dive, their most difficult, which earned a 67.71.
“After the fourth dive we were a little disappointed, but we had two dives to go so it wasn’t over,” said Zsombor-Murray of their mentality heading into the fifth dive. “We kept fighting, but something happened, we don’t really know what.”
Despite missing the podium together on Friday, the two divers represent a new era of international medal hopefuls in men’s diving, something Canada hasn’t had much of since Alex Despatie retired in 2013.
“The women divers have always been strong in Canada, but since Alex we haven’t really had international medals on the men’s side, so it’s an honour,” said Zsombor-Murray on Wednesday. “I think it’s an honour to feel like we’re the ones now. We’re the ones that are capable of bringing a medal in for our country.”
“It’s a lot of pressure, but also it’s a privilege to have that pressure and have the expectation,” added Wiens. “I think it’s gonna be a really, really good couple of years here for us.”
Wiens and Zsombor-Murray aren’t done for the weekend, either. Both divers will compete individually in the men’s 10-metre platform preliminary rounds on Saturday with a chance to book a spot in Sunday’s final.
Earlier in the pool, 21-year-old Bryden Hattie of Victoria advanced to the men’s three-metre springboard final on Sunday by finishing eighth with a 393.90 score in the preliminaries.
Caeli McKay, a 23-year-old Tokyo Olympian from Calgary, and 31-year-old Celina Toth of Victoria both advanced to the women’s 10-metre platform final on Sunday. McKay finished third in the preliminaries with a 370.35 score, Toth was 11th with 280.10. Victoria’s Renee Batalla, Canada’s youngest diver in the event at 16 years old, finished 17th, missing the cut.
The event continues with more individual preliminary rounds on Saturday morning, with the women’s 10-metre synchro and men’s three-metre synchro finals following in the afternoon.
The individual finals and team event will on be on Sunday.
It’s Montreal’s first senior diving event since 2020 and the second of three World Cup events this year. The first was held in Xi’an, China in April, the third is a Super Final this August in Berlin.
Over 20 countries are competing this weekend, including China, which won all nine gold medals at the first World Cup event.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.