Meaghan Benfeito's medal chance slips away at diving worlds
'I had the bronze medal in my hand and I missed my last dive,' says Canadian
Canadian Meaghan Benfeito was fourth in the women's 10-metre platform final on Saturday at the diving World Series event in Guangzhou, China, while Vincent Riendeau finished sixth in the men's 10-metre platform.
The 28-year-old Benfeito registered 363.55 points to finish just 8.6 points back of the podium.
"I had the bronze medal in my hand and I missed my last dive," said Benfeito, "My finals were good except that one dive, it was really upsetting."
China's Yajie Si won the gold medal with a score of 418.10 points.
The 20-year-old Riendeau from Pointe-Claire, Que., was up against towering veterans like 2016 Olympic champion Aisen Chen of China, and Britain's Tom Daley. He scored 418.80 points for sixth place while working three new dives into his list of six.
Chen won gold with 601.15 points.
"Doing three new dives was kind of demanding physically and mentally, towards the end I was just trying to keep it together," said Riendeau, who scored 456.00 points in the semifinal to qualify for the evening's final.
Riendeau was also sixth last week at the first stop of the diving World Series in Beijing.
Benfeito and Riendeau combined for 315.18 points to take fifth place in mixed synchro on 10-metre. China's Jie Lian and Junjie Lian collected 355.08 points for top spot on the podium.