Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito of Canada won silver on Saturday at the U.S. Grand Prix diving competition. They finished in first place. REUTERS/Olivier JeanOlivier Jean/Reuters
Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal won the silver medal in women's 10-metre synchro on Saturday at the U.S., Grand Prix diving competition.
Liu Huixia and Jiaming Zhu of China won the gold medal earning 319.02 points followed by Filion and Benfeito at 304.92 and Amy Cozad and Laura Ryan of the U.S., in third at 294.75.
The Canadians possibly lost the gold on their third five, a forward three and a half for which the marks ranged from 4.0 to 7.0. On their other four dives in the final, Filion and Benfeito averaged 8.0's.
"We completely missed our third dive but the rest was solid," said Benfeito. "We are really happy to win another medal. That sets us up well for the trials."
High winds played havoc with the competitors at the outdoor venue, one of the few on the circuit.
"It was really hard for the divers today to stay concentrated," said Benfeito. "We had a terrible warm-up but we were determined to not let the wind affect our diving in the competition. We were told we look like the team that had the best control out there on our dives."
This season so far, they won silver at the FINA World Cup in February, a silver and two bronze on the four-stop World Series circuit and just last weekend they collected gold at the Canada Cup Grand Prix in Montreal.
Canadians were also in two other finals Saturday. Pamela Ware of Otterburn Park, Que., was sixth on women's three-metre and Riley McCormick of Victoria also sixth on men's 10-metre.
Competition ends Sunday with four more finals including Reuben Ross of Regina on men's three-metre and Benfeito on women's 10-metre.