Meaghan Benfeito, Vincent Riendeau team up for Diving World Series bronze
Canadians reach podium in mixed 10-metre synchro in final event of season
Meaghan Benfeito and Vincent Riendeau won bronze Saturday in the mixed 10-metre synchro platform at the FINA diving World Series.
The Canadian pair scored 306.72 points for third place. Iuliia Timoshinina and Nikita Shleikher of Russia won the gold with 331.35 points, while North Korea's Mi Hwa Kim and Il Myong Hyon scored 330.00 points for silver.
It was the first time Benfeito and Riendeau had teamed up since the Windsor, Ont., stop of the World Series in April of last year.
"I really enjoy diving with Vince because he's kind of my comfort zone, our synchro comes natural because we've been doing it since 2015," said the 29-year-old Benfeito of Montreal. "To be able to just focus on our individual dives and not so much the synchro was really good for the both of us. And also to go over 300 points with one practice, I would say it was a pretty good event."
Benfeito won a gold medal with Nathan Zsombor-Murray at last week's World Series in Montreal. Riendeau, from Pointe-Claire, Que., skipped the first two events of the season.
"I think that Meg and I are both quite happy with the result today, we put the old synchro team back together for the last leg of the World Series to represent Canada," said the 21-year-old Riendeau. "It's good that we did a lot in previous years so we got right back into the rhythm. Of course there was a little bit of lag in the synchro, it wasn't as good as it was the previous years because there wasn't as much practice, but we're quite happy with the result."
Imbeau-Dulac finishes 5th
Earlier, Francois Imbeau-Dulac, of Saint-Lazare, Que., finished fifth in the men's three-metre springboard final with 440.90 points. Siyi Xie of China took the gold medal with 536.60 points.
"I am very, very pleased with my performance today," said the 27-year-old Imbeau-Dulac, who made his second-straight World Series final. "It was already a big plus to make it to the final, and I think I showed that I can be a very consistent diver internationally and I'm more than happy with how today went."
Montreal's Philippe Gagne was fourth in his semifinal (401.55 points) and did not advance.
Benfeito failed to advance in the women's 10-metre platform. She was fourth in semifinal B (341.00 points). Montreal's Olivia Chamandy was a spot behind in the same semifinal with 300.85 points.