Silver Sunday for Meaghan Benfeito at World Series

Silver Sunday for Meaghan Benfeito at World Series

BEIJING- Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal capped a strong opening FINA World Series event for Canada on Sunday with a silver medal in the women’s 10-metre tower.

Canada finished the competition with three silver medals. Benfeito also took silver in 10-metre synchro with Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., on Friday and Jennifer Abel of Laval was second on women’s three-metre springboard on Saturday.

Olympic champion Chen Ruolin of China took the 10-metre gold with 403.75 points, Benfeito followed at 362.25 and Pandelela Rinong Pamg of Malaysia was third at 337.75. Filion also reached the final placing sixth at 303.90.

Benfeito, an Olympic bronze medallist with Filion in 10-metre synchro, opened the final with a strong forward dive equaling Chen’s score of 76.50 points. She received mixed reviews for her backward dive in the third round with judges marks ranging from 7.0 to 8.5. She was probably hoping to fare better as well on her armstand dive which she had nailed for a big score en route to the national title two weeks ago.

The FINA World Series has expanded from four to six-stops this season and is reserved for the top-ranked eight divers in the world in each event.

The next stop on the circuit is this Friday to Sunday (March 21-23) in Dubai.

Jeff Feeney

Events and Communications Manager

Diving Plongeon Canada

Ph: (613) 736-5238 ext.2101

Em: jeff@diving.ca