Donna Spencer

ATHENS (CP) - Alexandre Despatie felt like he won the silver instead of losing the gold at the Olympic Games on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old from Laval, Que., nailed his final dive of the night in springboard to pull past his idol Dmitri Sautin of Russia and finish second behind China's Peng Bo. "I definitely don't feel like I've lost the gold because the surprise for me to win silver was just unbelievable," Despatie said.

It was Canada's first Olympic medal in men's diving. Alexander Popov, Russian swimming great and an International Olympic Committee member, hung it around Despatie's neck.

Going into the final round, Despatie clung to third place with China's Wang Feng breathing down his neck less than two points behind in fourth.

Despatie does not look at the scoreboard and did not know his position in the standings when he stood on the board for his final dive, a forward 2�-somersault with two twists.

He believed he was completely out of the running for the podium after missing his third dive.

Despatie hit his last dive for scores between 8.5 and 9.5 out of 10 and when he emerged from the Olympic Aquatic Centre pool after his final dive, he didn't look entirely pleased.

That quickly changed when he finally did look at the scoreboard and he covered his face in amazement.

"Just knowing I was able to come back when it counted was very, very important to me," he said.

The springboard isn't Despatie's best event as he is the defending world champion on the 10-metre tower.

He'll compete in that event starting with Friday's preliminary round, so there wasn't going to be a celebration of his silver Tuesday night. Despatie predicted he wouldn't sleep well anyway.

"I know tomorrow I'm going to be sore because it's so much adrenaline, so much energy," he said. "But once that 10-metre event starts, it's all gone because that adrenaline is pumping again."

It was Canada's second diving medal of the Games after Blythe Hartley and Emilie Heymans won bronze in the synchronized event on the 10-metre tower last week. The two women will compete in the women's springboard starting Wednesday with Hartley a potential medallist there.

Despatie, who turned 19 in June, has been a diving wunderkind since the age of 13, when he won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the tower.

He has been among the world's elite on the tower since then, but just began tapping into his potential on the springboard this year after finishing sixth in the world in 2003.

Despatie's compact body has developed the kind of power that springboard requires as he can explode off the board and complete the rotations and twists with enough time to set up a clean entry.

"He's only 19 and he's not even yet at his full strength," his club coach Michel Larouche said, adding that Despatie is probably only at three-quarters of his potential on springboard.

"He's going to be able to do dives that probably nobody else can be capable to do."

Despatie went into Tuesday's 12-man final ranked third behind Sautin and Peng based on his semifinal scores.

In the marks for his first dive, he was awarded a perfect 10 by the British judge and moved into second spot and held that position through the second round.

Peng, who often dives with his mouth wide open from the effort he puts in, began pulling away from the field in the second round when he received five 10s out of seven.

"Peng Bo tonight was impeccable," Despatie said "He didn't miss anything and that's what the Olympics are about."

But the gold was still in reach for Despatie when he stepped up for his third and most difficult dive, a reverse 3�-somersault.

But he was short of vertical upon entry and his low scores dropped him to third.

"I did feel inside me a lot of anger, a lot of sadness of course because everything had gone so well so far that it seemed like it couldn't go wrong, but it did," he said. "But I knew it's not over and I had to keep going and finish strong."

It meant a lot for Despatie to compete alongside the 30-year-old veteran Sautin, who was competing in his last Olympics after an injury filled year.

Sautin has won six Olympic medals in both tower and springboard during his career and gave Despatie his blessing to continue that success.

"Alex is really a unique person. He became a super athlete," Sautin said. "I wish him every success and health in the future to win over and over again."

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