Duo reaches podium in 3-metre synchro event in China
Canada’s Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu came away with a silver medal in the 3-metre synchro event on the final day of competition at the Diving World Cup in Wuhan, China.
Abel, from Laval, Que., and Citrini-Beaulieu, from St-Constant, Que., scored 302.04 total points to secure second place.
Tingmao Shi and Yani Chang of China captured gold with a winning score of 334.80, while Anabelle Smith and Esther Qin of Australia earned 290.10 for bronze.
Citrini-Beaulieu said it wasn’t an easy journey to the World Cup, but she had a good feeling heading into the final.
“I was beside Jenn and a I was confident and I knew we could do something really good,” said Citrini-Beaulieu.
“We are pretty natural together and I really trust her, so I just went in there confident and did what I have to do and Jenn did the same thing and I’m really proud of her.”
Abel agreed it wasn’t an easy week, but a strong start on Sunday paved the way to the podium finish.
“The first two dives were really solid, so those put us in second place,” said Abel.
“We scored over 100 points [on our second dive] which is really good, especially in synchro.”
Abel also attributed the result to solid teamwork.
“What I’m really happy about today’s performance is we showed the character of our team,” said Abel. “This week was not really easy for Melissa and I, but we gave our all and we finished with a silver medal.”
Earlier this year, Abel, 26, and Citrini-Beaulieu, 22, reached the podium in each of the four stops on the FINA Diving World Series circuit, however the pair stumbled to a fifth-place finish at the Commonwealth Games in April.
‘Hard time’ in 10m final for Riendeau
Vincent Riendeau of Pointe-Claire, Que., finished 10th in the men’s 10-metre platform final with 382.95 points.
China’s Aisen Chen won the event with 557.80 points.
“I had a little bit of a hard time in the final,” said the 21 year-old Riendeau, “I’m definitely happy about being in the final, my first final at the World Cup, so I’m glad about that. But I wish that things that I was working on would have been a little more on point during the finals.
“I missed quite a few of my dives so definitely not too happy about the final result but I’ll definitely learn from it.”
Canada won four medals at the season-ending competition including two silvers and two bronze.
