Jennifer Abel, Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu win silver at Diving World Series
Canadian duo score 305.52 in women's synchro 3-metre springboard
Jennifer Abel and Melissa Citrini-Beaulieu helped Canada open the fourth stop of the diving World Series on the podium with a silver medal in the women's synchro three-metre springboard on Friday.
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The Canadian pair scored 305.52 points. China's Tingmao Shi and Yani Chang finished just ahead with 310.80 points.
Abel, 25, and Citrini-Beaulieu, 21, were in first place after four out of five dives. Australia's Esther Qin and Anabelle Smith placed third with 299.70 points.
"We didn't overreact, that was good, we did our job and didn't get distracted by that," said St. Constant, Que., native Citrini-Beaulieu.
The Chinese divers won an astounding 29 out of 30 events at the first three diving World Series stops.
"Melissa and I had really good practices this week," said Abel, from Laval, Que., "We really focused on doing the same thing, we didn't want any distractions."
This is Abel and Citrini-Beaulieu's second synchro medal of the diving World Series season. The Canadians won a bronze in Guangzhou, China in March.
The pair were newly assembled for the 2017 season since Abel's Olympic partner from 2016, Pamela Ware, was battling an injury she has since overcome.
Imbeau-Dulac, Gagne withdraw
In the men's synchro three-metre, Canada's Francois Imbeau-Dulac, 26, and Philippe Gagne, 19, were forced to pull out due to injury after three of six dives.
Gagne, from Ville Mont-Royal, Que., has been suffering from a lower-back injury leading up to the competition.
"It was the best thing to do," said Imbeau-Dulac, from St. Lazare, Que. "I'm very proud of him to try and do all the dives, unfortunately it didn't happen but that's OK."
Russia's Ilia Zakharov and Evgenii Kuznetsov won the event with 422.88 points.
In the women's synchro 10-metre platform, Meaghan Benfeito and Caeli McKay finished in fourth place with 293.82 points. Yajie Si and Qian Ren of China won gold with 336.66 points.
Don't miss the weekend's action starting Saturday at 10 a.m. ET with women's 10m and men's 3m semifinals on CBCSports.ca and CBC TV's Road to the Olympic Games show at 5 p.m. ET.
With files from CBC Sports