Filion and Benfeito earn silver at diving US Grand Prix

FORT LAUDERDALE – Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal collected their sixth international medal in eight events this season on Saturday with a second place finish in the women’s 10-metre synchro at the U.S., Grand Prix diving competition.

The event is the final opportunity for Canadian divers to earn qualifying points for the Olympic trials May 25-27 in Montreal.

Liu Huixia and Jiaming Zhu of China won the gold medal earning 319.02 points followed by Filion and Benfeito at 304.92 and Amy Cozad and Laura Ryan of the U.S., in third at 294.75.

The Canadians possibly lost the gold on their third five, a forward three and a half for which the marks ranged from 4.0 to 7.0. On their other four dives in the final, Filion and Benfeito averaged 8.0’s.

‘’We completely missed our third dive but the rest was solid,’’ said Benfeito. ‘’We are really happy to win another medal. That sets us up well for the trials.’’

High winds played havoc with the competitors at the outdoor venue, one of the few on the circuit.

‘’It was really hard for the divers today to stay concentrated,’’ said Benfeito. ‘’We had a terrible warm-up but we were determined to not let the wind affect our diving in the competition. We were told we look like the team that had the best control out there on our dives.’’

This season so far, they won silver at the FINA World Cup in February, a silver and two bronze on the four-stop World Series circuit and just last weekend they collected gold at the Canada Cup Grand Prix in Montreal.

Canadians were also in two other finals Saturday. Pamela Ware of Otterburn Park, Que., was sixth on women’s three-metre and Riley McCormick of Victoria also sixth on men’s 10-metre.

Competition ends Sunday with four more finals including Reuben Ross of Regina on men’s three-metre and Benfeito on women’s 10-metre.

Full results: https://secure.meetcontrol.com/divemeets/system/meetresultsext.php?meetnum=2016&organization=USAD

For more information:
Jeff Feeney
Events & Communications Manager
Diving Canada
jeff@diving.ca
Tel.: (613) 736-5238, ext. 2101
Cell: (613) 668-9668
Website: http://www.diving.ca/

Samuel Larochelle
Communications coordinator
Plongeon Québec
slarochelle@plongeon.qc.ca
Tel.: (514) 252-3096
Cell. : (514) 691-2256
Website : www.plongeon.qc.ca
Twitter : http://twitter.com/PlongeonQuebec
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