Canadian diving star Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., advanced to the men's three-metre springboard final after winning the preliminary and semifinal rounds Friday at the Canada Cup FINA Grand Prix diving competition.
"It went very well, I'm very pleased," said Despatie, a three-time world champion who will be the gold medal favourite in Sunday's final. "The key for me today was my consistency which is always crucial in a diving competition of this level. My semifinal was especially strong, the errors I made were minimal."
Eric Sehn of Edmonton placed fifth in the semifinal, good enough to earn a spot alongside Despatie on the Canadian team for the FINA World Cup later this year, but not enough to advance to the final.
"Advancing to the semis was better than I expected," said Sehn, seventh in preliminaries. "I just concentrated on what I needed to do and I was really fired up after not meeting my standards in the 10-metre. I've added a new inward dive to my list and I did it pretty well both times today."
Francois Imbeau-Dulac of St. Lazare, Que., was 12th in the prelims and Reuben Ross of Regina 15th.
In the women's 10-metre tower, Rachel Kemp of Victoria advanced to the final, placing second in her semifinal heat between two Chinese divers. Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal was fourth, missing a berth in the final by nine points. Both divers earned World Cup berths for Canada in the event.
"I had a great preliminaries and that just gave me a lot of confidence for the semifinal," said Kemp, third in the morning prelims. "My dives were way more consistent in the semis and I scored a lot more points on my first dive as well which really helped me out."
Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., was sixth in the preliminaries and did not advance.