Canada's Ware captures women's 3m springboard silver, wins 3 medals at Diving World Cup
Zsombor-Murray earns men's 10m platform bronze, Canada wins silver in team event
Canada's Pamela Ware showed off a much-improved dive, paving the way for a silver medal on the final day of World Cup action in Montreal.
The two-time Olympian scored 79.50 points on her fifth and final effort for a total 365.40 to hold off American Sarah Bacon, who shone before Ware's performance en route to bronze 357.85 points. Chen Yiwen of China posted a winning score of 404.70.
"Often my last dive isn't as good because I want to do so well that I hold back … But I just said, 'You know what, go for it, you can do it,"' Ware said to The Canadian Press. "When I heard the crowd when I came out of the pool, it was just so loud and I got chills and I just started crying."
After two dives, Ware was tied for third with Sayaka Mikami, behind Yiwen and Bacon
On her third, the native of Greenfield Park, Que., was set to perform inward 2 ½ somersaults with a 3.0 degree of difficulty. At one time, it was Ware's most difficult dive, but she has made big gains in training.
The 30-year-old's hard work paid off as she demonstrated excellent pike position and scored 72 points on the dive to move to silver medal position ahead of Yani Chang in third and fourth-place Bacon.
Ware fed off the energy of the hometown crowd at Olympic Park Sports Centre on her final dive, scoring 79.50 for a forward 2 ½ somersaults with a twist. Seconds later, tears of joy flowed down her cheeks while she received several congratulatory hugs.
WATCH | Ware captures 3m springboard silver:
The weekend competition was the first major event for Ware since the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where she was forced to pull up from a dive after making a mistake in the semifinals and spent a year working on the mental side of the sport.
By the time she returned to diving, she had new training, new coaching, and the dive she unsuccessfully performed in Tokyo was no longer part of her lineup.
"I know there were a lot of people who doubted me because of what happened in Tokyo, but I worked so hard [to get back]," said Ware. "I think I showed this weekend that I have returned, and I'm here to stay."
Aaron Dziver, a Canadian team coach who worked with Ware through the Tokyo Games and is now the technical director at the Canadian Diving Institute in Montreal, gives her credit for coming back at her own pace and using her mistake as motivation.
"With experience, and even with the shortcomings we face as an athlete, you can look it as a defeat or look at what happened and become stronger," he said. "The performance here today, as well as [Saturday] gives Pamela even more motivation to be here again, again and again.
"She's shown to everyone and all her competitors that she's here. She's here for the [July 14-30] world championships coming up in Fukuoka [Japan], and the Olympics in Paris."
The 22-year-old Vallée was ninth (296.00) in a field of 12 on Sunday, several months after the Beaconsfield, Que., native broke through with two medals at world championships.
WATCH | Ware, Vallée claim 3-metre synchro bronze:
In Budapest, Hungary, she became the first Canadian woman to win multiple medals when the springboard specialist took bronze in the 1-metre and silver in the 3m.
Zsombor-Murray claims men's 10m platform bronze
Canada's Nathan Zsombor-Murray won bronze in the men's 10m platform event later in the evening.
China's Yang Hao dominated the event, claiming gold with a total score of 580.25, 72.45 ahead of Zsombor-Murray, and 66.80 points clear of silver medallist Rikuto Tamai of Japan. Scores in the final were accumulated across six rounds.
Zsombor-Murray, 20, vaulted into first-place after a near-perfect second dive, recording a score of 109.15 on a jump that carried his highest degree of difficulty on the day (3.7).
"I could hear the crowd while I was underwater," Zsombor-Murray said to The Canadian Press of his second dive. "While I was swimming up to get air, I knew I had a good score. It was a unique sensation."
Hao then edged ahead of the Pointe Claire, Que., native after the third round, receiving perfect 10s across the board from the seven judges.[\
He put even more distance on the Canadian after Zsombor-Murray's sub-par fourth and fifth-round dives, with the Chinese competitor effectively clinching first-place after three straight best-of-round dives, including an event-high score of 111 in the fifth round.
With Zsombor-Murray feeling pressure from Tamai and Great Britain's Noah Williams, he delivered a stellar 88 points on his final dive — fifth best of the round — to remain on the podium, while Tamai's 97.20 score on his sixth dive elevated him to silver.
WATCH | Zsombor-Murray earns bronze in 10m platform:
The Canadian entered the day ranked fifth after Saturday's preliminary round, also finishing seventh in the men's 10m synchronized event earlier in the weekend with partner Rylan Wiens.
Zsombor-Murray was a bronze medallist in the 10m synchro event at the 2021 Diving World Cup in Tokyo. He also collected silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, and bronze at the 2022 world championships in Budapest in the same discipline.
Canada takes silver in team event
Canada ended the weekend on a high note with a silver medal in the team event final.
Zsombor-Murray and Ware added to their medal haul, combining with Calgary's Caeli McKay and Victoria native Bryden Hattie to finish 34.35 points back of China's gold-medal winning total of 489.25.
WATCH | Canada closes weekend with silver medal:
Australia took bronze with 451.45 points in the 10-country event.
Ware and Hattie kicked things off with a bang with their 10m dives in the first of four rounds, with Ware earning the best women's score of the round at 73.50, and Hattie pulling through with a score of 79.05 to take a narrow lead over China into the second round.
Ware and Hattie kept their momentum going into the next round with a round-best score of 81.60 on their synchronized dive, extending their lead ever so slightly over China.
Zsombor-Murray and McKay picked up the baton in the third round with an uneven performance; Zsombor-Murray secured the fifth best men's score of the round at 83.20, while McKay had the eighth best women's score at 51.15 to drop Canada to fourth behind China, Australia and Germany entering the last round.
The Canadian duo ended on a high note with a score of 86.40 on their synchronised dive — good for third best in the round — to overtake both Australia and Germany for silver.
McKay 5th in women's 10m platform
Earlier Sunday, Canada's McKay finished fifth and Celina Toth seventh in the women's 10m platform individual final.
"I would have loved to have a medal," McKay said. "But I'm happy, like I can't be mad at myself."
Chinese divers Quan Hongchan and Chen Yuxi won gold and silver and Britain's Andrea Spendolini Sirieix took bronze.
WATCH | Women's 10m platform final:
McKay placed third in the preliminary round on Friday. She teamed with Ottawa's Kate Miller for a fifth-place finish in the 10-metre synchro competition on Saturday.
China's Wang Zongyuan won gold in the men's three-metre springboard final on Sunday. Australia's Li Shixin took silver and Germany's Moritz Wesemann picked up bronze.
Hattie was ninth.
The competition is Montreal's first senior diving event since 2020 and the second of three World Cup meetings this year.
The first was held in Xi'an, China in April. The top 18 athletes in individual events and top eight teams in synchronized and team events will qualify for the World Cup Super Final this August in Berlin.
With files from The Canadian Press
