Athens � Despite finishing first, Alexandre Despatie didn't want to read too much into his diving performance in the preliminary round of the springboard at the Olympics on Monday.

But it was plain to see that the 19-year-old from Laval, Que., was a gold-medal threat as he picked up steam through his six dives to take a healthy lead into Tuesday's semifinal.

Despatie was in that elusive optimal state of mind where his concentration was unshakeable, but he was also relaxed enough to perform.

"The point was to come here and make it to the final and be in a comfortable position to get into the final," Despatie said. "I'm first so I guess that's pretty comfortable.

"It's not the score or the position that counts. What was good this morning I was able to deal with any sort of situation I had to deal with."

Montreal's Phil Comtois also qualified for the semifinal by finishing 12th.

Comtois said it was his "best performance for the past two years internationally."

The top 18 divers advanced to the semifinal. The top 12 from the semifinal will perform in the final later on Tuesday.

Despatie is the world champion on the 10-metre tower, but has come on strong this year in the three-metre springboard.

He was ranked No. 1 on springboard this year by FINA, the world governing body of swimming, after finishing sixth at the world championships last year.

"Last year at worlds, I was in a different stage of my three-metre evolution," Despatie explained. "This whole year has been very good on the springboard. Of course, it's different, but I'll have to keep in mind that there's tough competition out there."

That competition includes China's Peng Bo and Russian world champion Alexander Dobroskok, who were second and third respectively behind Despatie after Monday's dives. Russian Dmitri Sautin, the Olympic bronze medallist in Sydney, was sixth and within striking distance of the podium.

After sitting seventh after the first round, and third after his second dive, Despatie took over first place from Dobroskok with his third dive, a reverse three-and-a-half somersault, which earned him scores of 8.9 to 9.5 out of 10.

He remained on top of the 32-man field for the remaining three dives to finish with 517.59 points, followed Peng with 495.45 and Dobroskok with 489.75.

The semifinals feature compulsory dives with a lower degree of difficulty. In the finals, the preliminary scores are dropped, but divers repeat their more difficult list of dives from the preliminary round. Despatie posted the highest scores of all divers on the last four of his six dives Monday.

If Despatie can hold down first place through the semifinal, he will be the last diver in the final, which his coach Michel Larouche said would be an advantage. Judges won't be tempted to hold back marks for later divers.

"Diving last? Super," Larouche said.

In a Games where medals of any colour have been trickling in, the Canadian team would welcome a gold in springboard. Canada has never won an Olympic medal in men's diving.

"I know what people are saying," Despatie said. "I know what the expectations are. I just don't think about it."

Teammate Emilie Heymans missed her final dive the previous evening in the women's tower to drop from second to fourth. Despatie said that while the team felt her pain, it did not change his approach Monday.

"I'm not relating Emilie's performance to me because she's doing her thing, I'm doing my thing," he said. "I know she's disappointed."

Larouche lamented the fact that Canada seems to care about how its amateur athletes perform at the Olympics, but not nearly as much in the years between Games.

"How come the past two weeks we become so important for the image of Canada and during the past four years, amateur sport is the last priority?" he asked.

Monday afternoon's session at the 5,700-seat Olympic Aquatic Centre was better attended than the women's tower final the previous night, in part because there was a Greek diver participating in the springboard and not in the tower final. About 3,000 people took in the preliminaries.

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