Canadian Olympic bronze medalists Jennifer Abel and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal, Quebec won two gold medals each at the 2020 FINA Diving World Series in Montreal on the weekend. Abel won the gold medal in the women’s three metre springboard on Sunday and the gold medal in the women’s three metre synchronized springboard alongside Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu of Saint-Constant, Quebec on Friday. Benfeito won the gold medal in the women’s 10 metre platform on Saturday and the gold medal in the women’s 10 metre synchronized platform with Caeli McKay of Calgary, Alberta on Friday.
Team Canada won two other medals at the FINA Diving World Series in Montreal in events with Olympic status on the weekend. In the men’s 10 metre synchronized diving platform competition on Friday, Vincent Riendeau and Nathan Zsombor-Murray of Montreal won the bronze medal and in the men’s three metre springboard diving competition on Saturday, Philippe Gagne of Montreal won the gold medal.
In the women’s 10 metre synchronized platform diving, Benfeito and McKay had a winning score of 313.02 points. Pandelela Pamg and Mun Yee Leong of Malaysia won the silver medal with a score of 297.66 points. Iuliia Timoshinina and Ekaterina Beliaeva of Russia won the bronze medal with a score of 288.3 points. Benfeito and McKay earned a medal by 24.96 points over fourth place finishers Samantha Bromberg and Katrina Young of the United States, who had a score of 288.06 points.
In the women’s three metre synchronized springboard diving, Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu had a winning score of 298.83 points. Melany Hernandez Torres and Paola Espinosa Sanchez of Mexico won the silver medal with 286.2 points. Kristina Ilinykh and Mariia Poliakova of Russia won the bronze medal with 285.6 points. Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu reached the podium by 17.01 points over fourth place finishers Katherine Torrance and Grace Reid of Great Britain, who had a score of 281.82 points.
In the men’s 10 metre synchronized springboard diving, Riendeau and Zsombor-Murray had a bronze medal score of 407.76 points. Viktor Minibaev and Aleksandr Bondar of Russia won the gold medal with 412.44 points. Kevin Berlin Reyes and Ivan Garcia Navarro of Mexico won the silver medal with a score of 407.94 points. Zsombor-Murray and Riendeau reached the podium by 22.83 points over David Dinsmore and Brandon Loschiavo of the United States who had a fourth place score of 384.93 points.
In the women’s 10 metre platform on Saturday, Benfeito won the gold medal with 355.1 points. Timoshinina won the silver medal with 347.4 points. Pamg won the bronze medal with 337.55 points. Benfeito reached the podium by 26.2 points over Lois Toulson of Great Britain, who had a fourth place score of 328.9 points.
In the men’s three metre springboard on Saturday, Gagne won the gold medal with 471.3 points. Jack Laugher of Great Britain won the silver medal with 431.05 points. Mike Hixon of the United States won the bronze medal with 425.65 points. Gagne reached the podium by 55.75 points over Nikita Shleikher of Russia, who was in fourth place with 415.55 points.
In the women’s three metre springboard on Sunday, Abel won the gold medal with 363 points. Poliakova won the silver medal with 320.25 points. Anabelle Smith of Australia won the bronze medal with 317.25 points. Abel reached the podium by 45.9 points over fourth place finisher Esther Qin of Australia, who had 317.1 points.
The medals for Abel, Citrini-Beaulieu, McKay, Benfeito, Riendeau, Zsombor-Murray and Gagne will give them confidence as they prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. However even though Canadian divers had great success in Montreal, one must realize that the great Chinese divers did not participate in the first World Series of the year. Abel won an Olympic bronze medal with Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Quebec in the women’s three metre springboard synchronized diving at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Benfeito is a three-time Olympic medalist in diving. She won the bronze medal in the women’s 10 metre synchronized platform diving at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro alongside Roseline Filion of Laval, Quebec, and won the bronze medal in women’s 10 metre platform diving at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
