Ware, Abel earn diving spots for Canada at 2020 Olympics
GWANGJU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA — Canada’s diving team earned another two spots at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after Pamela Ware and Jennifer Abel qualified for the final of the women’s threemetre springboard Thursday at the FINA world aquatics championships.
Abel, 27, from Laval, Que., finished fourth in the semifinal with 339.90 points, while Montreal’s Ware, 26, was sixth with 308.00 points.
“The goal coming here was to be top 12 to qualify an Olympic spot,” Ware said. “Now it’s really to compete in the final and do the best I can, hopefully top-eight to qualify for the World Series (tour).”
Abel, a three-time Olympian, described Thursday’s morning preliminary round as “tough.”
“I was diving towards the end and, during the last round of dives, I was seeing the other girls getting changed and packing their bags while I still had to dive,” she said.
Abel said the afternoon semifinal was much easier.
“Most of the girls that were diving towards the end are the same ones that I’m used to competing with at the World Series. It really helped me to stay focused and I think it showed in the quality of the dives we saw,” she said.
Meaghan Benfeito of Laval, Que, and Calgary’s Caeli McKay qualified for Olympic spots in the women’s 10-metre platform Tuesday.
Abel also secured Olympic nomination along with Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu by winning the silver medal in the women’s three-metre synchro springboard.
Also Thursday, defending champion Xie Siyi of China won the men’s three-metre springboard final after Jack Laugher of Britain faltered in his last dive.
It extended China’s perfect run at the championships to 10 gold medals in 10 diving events.
Laugher led all the way until he only scored 30.6 points in his sixth dive and had to settle for bronze with 504.55 points. Xie scored 102.60 points in his last dive for a total of 545.45. Cao Yuan of China finished second with 517.85 points.
Alexandre Despatie is the last non-Chinese diver to win gold in the three-metre springboard event, finishing first at the 2005 worlds in his hometown of Montreal.