Jennifer Abel wins gold on 1-meter springboard at Commonwealth Games

EDINBURGH, Scotland – Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., success fully defended her Commonwealth Games title on one-metre springboard in diving action Friday at the Commonwealth Games.

Abel took the title with 287.25 points with Maddison Keeney of Australia second at 281.95 and Estehr Qin, also of Australia, third at 278.65.  Pamela Ware of Beloeil, Que., was sixth and Emma Friesen of Victoria 11th.

It was a second medal for Abel, runner-up on three-metre synchro with Ware on Wednesday.  Canada now has five diving medals (three gold, a silver and bronze) after three days of competition.  Abel and Ware are also top medal contenders on  women’s three-metre set for Saturday.

‘’My focus this year was on three-metre so I wasn’t going in with any expectations today,’’ said Abel, a two-time Olympian.  ‘’I did the dives I knew and stuck to the technique and wound up diving pretty good.’’

On men’s three-metre synchro, Jack Laugher and Chris Mears of England took gold with Matthew Mitcham and Grant Nel of Australia second and Nick Robinson-Baker and Freddie Woodward of England third.

Maxim Bouchard of St-Constant, Que., and Riley McCormick of Victoria were fifth. On men’s 10-m synchro, Domonic Bedggood and Mitcham were the victors with Tom Daley and James Denny of England second and Ooi Tze Liang and Chew Yiwei of Malaysia third. 

Bouchard and Vincent Riendeau of Pointe-Claire, Que., were fourth just  three points from the podium.
‘’I think it went well considering we’ve only trained for two and half weeks,’’ said Bouchard.  ‘’The synchro was good but the individual dives could have been better.’’

Diving competition ends Saturday.