Benfeito wins FABIV’s first gold in 2015
Benfeito wins FABIV’s first gold in 2015
ROSTOCK, Germany – A strong finish allowed Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito to win the gold medal on women’s 10-metre tower Friday at the season opening event on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.
The Montreal diver totalled 360.30 points for her second career Grand Prix win. Chinese divers were second and third with Jing Lin earning 359.40 and Miya Suo 337.65. Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., followed closely in fourth at 332.10.
‘’I’m really pleased, especially to bounce back after a tough preliminary round,’’ said Benfeito, a two-time Olympian. '‘I wasn’t really expecting to come back and get the win. But I followed the scoring throughout the final and I knew I really needed to finish strong to hold my lead.’’
Benfeito kept close to Lin in the first three rounds of the final then made her move in the fourth round to grab the lead with a solid back three and half. She finished the competition with her best dive of the night earning a string of 8.0’s for her inward three and half.
‘’I changed my dive order for this season and so far the strategy has been effective,’’ she said. ‘’I’m going with my two toughest dives at the end the list and the last one is the one that stresses me out the most.’’
Filion meanwhile wasn’t sharp early on but gradually gained ground through each round to almost make it to the podium.
‘’The second dive probably cost me the medal,’’ said Filion. ‘’I think my experience kicked in after that and I was able to keep it together even though there was no room for error on my last three dives.’’
Filion and Benfeito are part of Canada’s diving Fab IV with Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware, the sport’s version of the famed Crazy Canucks skiers of the 1970’s, which is giving the Chinese a run for their money in the sport leading up to the 2016 Olympic Games.
On men’s three-metre, Jahir Ocampo of Mexico took the gold with Jianfeng Peng of China second and Iliya Kvasha of Ukraine third.
Seventeen-year-old Philippe Gagné of Montreal was eliminated in the semifinals for seventh overall.
‘’I was solid all day,’’ said Gagné, competing on three-metre for the first time on the circuit. ‘’All my dives were successful. I was especially pleased with how I overcame my nerves in the preliminaries.’’
Competition continues through to Sunday.
Full results: http://www.sportlicht.net/live/result.php?event_id=139
