Silver medal helps take away sting of rough start for Canada divers
After a rocky start to the Commonwealth Games diving competition Wednesday, Canada stepped up to the medal podium.
Flag-bearer Meaghan Benfeito and teenage partner Caeli McKay steadied the ship with a silver medal in the women’s 10metre synchronized event after a botched dive dropped Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu out of medal contention in the three-metre synchro final.
“We had a really shaky start as you might have noticed,” said Mitch Geller, Diving Canada’s chief technical officer. “That was a real hard one and a bit of a shock for all of us.
“But we also know that there are no guarantees in this sport, that’s for sure.”
Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu had won silver in the same event at the 2017 FINA World Championships last summer in Budapest. And they led after three dives Wednesday
But it fell apart on the fourth when Abel lost position on a forward 3½ somersault dive from the pike position, the duo’s most difficult dive of the day. The 26-year-old from Laval, Que., all but jackknifed into the pool with her hands just beating her feet to the water.
“A big technical mistake,” said Abel, who won the event in 2010 and took silver in 2014, albeit with a different partner.
Canadian boxer Marie-Jeanne Parent lost her semifinal Wednesday but will leave with a bronze medal. And Canada will earn five more medals in the boxing ring, with only the colour to be decided.
Parent lost a 4-1 decision to England’s Sandy Ryan in the 69-kilogram division.
The 22-year-old from Quebec City was the last athlete named to the team, summoned a little more than a month before the games when Mandy Bujold withdrew.
Also Wednesday, Caroline Veyre of Montreal was stopped by Nigeria’s Yetunde Odunga in the 60-kilogram quarterfinal.
In the last fight of the night, Montreal’s Harley-David O’Reilly won by walkover over Cameroon’s Ulrich Rodrigue Yombo in the men’s 81-kilogram quarterfinal.
He will be joined in the semifinals by Sabrina Aubin of St-Jean, Que., (57 kilograms), Montreal’s Tammara Thibeault (75 kilograms), Eric Basran of Vancouver (56 kilograms) and Thomas Blumenfeld of Montreal (64 kilograms).
Django Lovett won a bronze in the high jump Wednesday. The 25-year-old from Surrey, B.C., recorded a personal best of 2.30 metres (up from 2.27) at Carrara Stadium. Australia’s Brandon Starc won gold at 2.32 metres and Jamaica’s Jamal Wilson took the silver at 2.30 by virtue of fewer misses. Michael Mason of Nanoose Bay, B.C., was sixth at 2.24.
Canada’s men’s and women’s beach volleyball teams will go for gold. Melissa Humana-Paredes of Toronto and Sarah Pavan of Kitchener, Ont., downed Mariota Angelopoulou and Manolina Konstantinou of Cyprus 21-7, 21-12 in semifinal action Wednesday while Sam Pedlow of Barrie, Ont., and Sam Schachter of Richmond Hill, Ont., defeated New Zealand brothers Ben and Sam O’Dea 21-19, 21-15.