Abel and Ware soar at 2013 Summer Senior Nationals

QUEBEC CITY – Jennifer Abel of Laval and Pamela Ware of Beloeil, Que., posted a personal best score en route to the gold medal and a berth on the world championship team on women’s thee-metre synchro on Thursday at the 2013 Summer Senior Nationals diving competition.

In addition to being a qualifying event for the FINA World Championships July 19 to August 4 in Barcelona, spots will also be determined for the World University Games July 6-17 in Kazan, Russia.

Abel and Ware, a new partnership this season, totalled 324.27 to easily beat the world team qualifying standard. Emma Friesen of North Vancouver and Hailey Casper of Calgary were second at 273.03.

“It went extremely well,” said Abel, an Olympic bronze medallist in the event last year with Emilie Heymans. “We executed our dives really well. We were a bit penalized on the third dive but it’s not something that worries us.”

This is the sixth competition this year for Abel and Ware. They won the Winter Nationals title in February, earned two medals in three appearances on the FINA World Series circuit and added silver three weeks ago at the Canada Cup Grand Prix in Gatineau.

“We improved all facets of our diving,” said Ware, 20. “The level of our first two dives in particular was much higher.”

On women’s one-metre, which is an event at the world championships, Friesen took top spot with 271.90. Eloise Bélanger of Montreal was second at 259.95 and Jo-Annie Dubois of Quebec City third at 236.95.

‘’It was a really good warm-up for the three-metre,’’ said Friesen, a silver medallist at the USA Grand Prix on three-metre two weeks ago. ‘’There was pressure as the defending champion and I performed well while feeling nervous. I have to accept that it’s part of the excitement.’’

Competition continues through to Sunday at Université Laval.

Canadians win two medals at diving Grand Prix

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Emma Friesen of North Vancouver and Philippe Gagné of Montreal each won their first international medal on Saturday at the fifth stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.

On women’s three-metre, Qu Lin of China took the gold medal with 326.30 points. Friesen followed closely at 322.05 and Inge Jansen of the Netherlands was third at 301.60. Aimee Harrison of Winnipeg was also in the final and was fifth at 269.20.

“It was incredible and it made all the hard work well worth it,” said Friesen, 24. “The reverse dive was definitely a highlight, I really nailed it. I knew going into the last dive how well I was doing and while I could have done the take-off better I was pleased with my finish.”

Harrison, 18, was also in her first Grand Prix final.

“I was hoping to fare better today,” she said. “Still at this competition I think a set a new level of excellence for myself.”

China was 1-2 in the men’s 10-metre final with Huo Liang earning the gold at 571.25 and Jian Yang the silver at 515.95. Gagné, 15 and competing at only his second career Grand Prix, followed with a personal best 431.20.

‘’It’s a great feeling to get a medal,’’ said Gagné, who made his international debut two weeks ago at the Canada Cup Grand Prix in Gatineau. ‘’After the semis, I knew a medal was possible but I was going to have to get a personal best score to have any chance.’’

Competition ends Sunday featuring Cody Yano of Edmonton in the men’s three-metre final.

Contact: Jeff Feeney
Events and Communications Manager

Gestionnaire des événements et des communications

Diving Plongeon Canada

Tel: 613 736 5238 x 2101

Em: jeff@diving.ca

Dear members,

I wanted to take a moment to remind each of you that the BC Diving member code of conduct, and our Harassment Policy is available for you to review at our website and if for any reason you feel you need to connect with our staff or the Board of Directors for any reason related to the diving world I would highly encourage you to do so.

In addition if any of our members have any concerns, questions or comments related to the recent charges and arrest of one of our former members who coached in this province for a number of years, we want you to know that we are available for discussion and have at our disposal several professional counsellors and mental performance coaches that may be able to assist with issues arising from this matter.  We don’t want you to feel like you are in isolation or have nowhere to turn if you have need for counsel.  Club Boards; please feel free to use our Member Conduct Policy for your club as well.  We also have available a criminal background check company for all your coaches.

We will be conducting a review of our policies and codes of conduct as well as putting together a couple of workshops related to the coach, athlete parent triad relationship, that will be presented at our AGM in the fall but again if any members have anything they wish to bring forward prior to that please do not hesitate to contact our office.  Our Staff, Jayne McDonald, Lisa Breure and Bev Boys will be able to direct you and our Board of Directors, Tim Pfeifer, Steve Weller, Shelly Smee, Diane Atkinson and myself are available to speak with and make referral if needed.

Kindest regards and yours in diving

Rodd McCormick

President, BC Diving

BC Diving supports both Dive Canada and Riley McCormick’s statements.

Tier 1, 2 and Masters

IreneMacDonald2013

April 26, 2013   DRESDEN, Germany – Courtney Hattie and Emily Schmidt of Victoria won the bronze medal in the open women’s three-metre synchro event on Friday at the International Youth Diving Meet.

It was Canada’s second bronze at the age group competition which features many of the top junior divers in the world.

Christina Wassen and Elena Wassen of Germany took the three-metre synchro gold with 281.07 points, their compatriots Friederike Freyer and Tina Punzel were second at 264.27 and Hattie and Schmidt, competing together for the first time, scored 254.52.

“We had a lot of fun and we won the medal as a team,” said Hattie, two years older than her partner. “All our dives were quite consistent.”

The pair faced some challenges trying to prepare for this competition.

“We’ve only been practicing for two weeks and it’s been a lot of work to make sure we have the same movements from the arm swings on take-offs to the synchronization and landings,” said Schmidt. “We hope this is the start of something new.”

Earlier in the day Schmidt placed 8th in the Girls 14-15 platform event, following a seventh place finish the day before on the 1 metre.  Hattie also placed 7th in the Girls 16-18 platform event on Thursday.