Olympic bronze medalist Jennifer Abel of Montreal, Quebec and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu of Saint-Constant, Quebec won the silver medal in women’s three metre synchronized springboard diving at the 2018 Diving World Cup in Wuhan, China. It was Canada’s third medal of the competition among events that have Olympic status.
Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu had a second place score of 302.04 points. Tingmao Shi and Yani Chang of China won the gold medal with a score of 334.8 points. Anabelle Smith and Esther Qin of Australia won the bronze medal with 290.1 points.
Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu reached the podium very comfortably. They had 26.04 more points than fourth place finishers Inge Jansen and Celine Van Duijn of the Netherlands who had a fourth place finish of 276 points.
Over the last two years, the top Canadian three metre synchronized springboard diving team has been Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Abel and Pamela Ware of Greenfield Park, Quebec had a fourth place finish. Since the change, Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu won the silver medal in women’s three metre synchronized springboard diving at the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championship in Budapest and there seems to be a real chemistry between the two.
Canada’s other two medals in events with Olympic status at the 2018 Diving World Cup were also achieved by women. Ware won a bronze medal in the women’s three metre springboard on Saturday and three-time Olympic bronze medalist Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal, Quebec teamed with Caeli McKay of Calgary, Alberta to win a bronze medal in the women’s 10 metre synchronized diving platform competition on Thursday.
The medals for Abel, Citrini-Beaulieu, Benfeito, McKay and Ware will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. The fact that the five Canadian divers were able to win medals in Asia, like the Olympic games will be two years from now, should also be a boost.
Abel won her Olympic bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. She teamed up with Emilie Heymans of Montreal, Quebec in the women’s three metre synchronized springboard.