Second silver for Jennifer Abel at World Series

Second silver for Jennifer Abel at World Series

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., won a three-way battle for second place to take the silver medal on the women’s three-metre springboard on Friday at the second stop on the FINA World Series diving circuit.

It was Abel’s second silver in the event this season and her second medal this week. On Thursday she was second runner-up on three-metre synchro with Pamela Ware of Beloeil, Que.

Olympic silver medallist He Zi of China won the gold with 391.20 points. Abel followed at 309.30 and Olena Fedorova of Ukraine was third at 304.50.

Abel scored about 25 points less than last week’s silver in Beijing and her morning preliminaries score here. She struggled on both her forward and reverse dives in the second and third rounds of the final which dropped her to fifth with only two dives to go.

“It was more difficult final for me,” she said. “It was important in that situation after missing two consecutive dives not to get discouraged, especially with two coming up that I’m very confident with.”

Abel rallied with solid backward and twisting dives, earning a string of 7.5’s from the judges. Only 21 and with two Olympic Games under her belt, Abel is pleased with her early season success in 2013.

“There are lots of areas to improve but overall it is going well,” she said. “Apart from today, my scores this year reflect that I’m already at the same level as when I completed my season last year after the Olympics, so it’s very encouraging.”

Competition ends Saturday with the women’s 10-metre tower featuring Roseline Filion of Laval and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal.

Jeff Feeney

Events and Communications Manager

Diving Plongeon Canada

Tel: 613 736 5238 x 2101

Em: jeff@diving.ca