Sidelined by injury and illness the past two years, Emma Friesen of North Vancouver earned her first career Canadian title Thursday, winning the women's one-metre springboard at the 2011 Summer Senior Nationals diving competition.
The Victoria-based Friesen earned marks as high as 8.5 on two of her five dives in the final and totalled 273.00 points. Jo-Annie Dubois of Quebec City took the silver at 266.60 and Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., also now in Victoria, was third at 263.25.
"I've come close to winning Canadian titles in the past so this feels great," said Friesen, 22, an NCAA champion in 2008 and world junior silver medallist in 2004. "This wasn't my best five-dive final ever but I was consistent and I kept my dives polished."
This was Friesen's first nationals since 2009. She broke her leg in a non-related diving accident then battled mononucleosis.
"I took a year off then started at the basics again last year," she said. "My goal is to come back better than ever before."
In the women's 10-metre synchro final, world championship and Commonwealth Games medallists Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., took the gold. Montreal sisters Pamela and Carol-Ann Ware were second and Eloise Belanger and Frederique Lalonde of Montreal third.
"We hadn't competed in a month after a busy spring and we had some trouble gaining momentum," said Benfeito. "We had a great start with our compulsory dives but a couple of our optional dives hurt our score."
On men's three-metre synchro, Andrew Saunders of Halifax and Maxime Morneau-Ricard of Laval, Que., were the winners. It was the second time they had competed together at nationals.
"This was much better," said Saunders, a finance student at East Michigan University. "We had more practice time and we were better able to exploit our strengths. We have a similar build and our starts are also solid. Right now Maxime gains more height than I and that's what I need to work on."
Competition continues through to Sunday at the Kinsmen Sports Centre.