Canadian diver Olivia Chamandy earns spot on world championship team
16-year-old will join Meaghan Benfeito after performance at Summer Nationals in Toronto
Sixteen-year-old Olivia Chamandy will be on Canada's team for the FINA World Championships this summer. She nailed her last dive to grab the second spot in women's 10-metre tower on Saturday at the Summer Nationals diving competition in Toronto.
Montreal's Meaghan Benfeito, the Olympic bronze medallist last year, placed first with 381.25 points.
Chamandy was in a battle with Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., for the second world spot behind Benfeito, and took the silver with a personal best 354.75, while Toth was third at 335.85.
"My big goal this year was to make the world team and I knew I would have to work really hard to make that happen," said Chamandy.
"I perfected my dives and did them as well as I could.''
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DivingNationals?src=hash">#DivingNationals</a> 🥇🥈🥉 Such a thrilling final! Hats off to our top-3! // Incroyable finale! Félicitations aux médaillées! <a href="https://t.co/1Qi8q7YZCA">pic.twitter.com/1Qi8q7YZCA</a>
—@DivingCanadaChamandy got herself back in contention for a world team berth last week when she won a bronze medal at a FINA Grand Prix in Madrid. She needed to earn at least 350 points today to beat Toth.
"I do watch the scoreboard," said Chamandy. "I kind of knew what was going on and I knew I had to nail the last dive to have a chance and it was probably my best dive of the competition."
<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DivingNationals?src=hash">#DivingNationals</a> 🥇🥈🥉 Congrats to <a href="https://twitter.com/TylerHenschel">@TylerHenschel</a> on winning his first individual National Title! 👏Félicitations à nos trois médaillés! <a href="https://t.co/6jy6Tsx1zs">pic.twitter.com/6jy6Tsx1zs</a>
—@DivingCanadaFor Benfeito, the summer nationals were an opportunity to fine-tune her list before the worlds in Budapest in late July.
"There's a lot of room for improvement," she said.
"I wanted to work on some of the corrections I made from my last competition. I spent the whole last month focusing on that and I felt I was a lot more consistent today."
In the men's one-metre, Tyler Henschel of Sherwood Park, Alta., was the winner followed by Peter Thach Mai of Montreal and Gabriel Corriveau of Terrebonne, Que. Competition ends Sunday at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.