Rare miss puts end to bid for gold
`I screwed my chance' on final trick

Rosie DiManno

ATHENS�Stop me if you've heard this one before.

"I screwed my chance.''

That's what Emilie Heymans said she was thinking, during those long moments before she surfaced from the depths of the diving pool, her tantalizing shot at gold having all but just disappeared in a messy splash.

It was right there, the Olympic championship, for the taking: A fair-square final round dive, three women holding their destiny in their own hands. All of them doing the same trick on the fifth trip up the 10-metre tower � a back 2 1/2 somersault with 1 1/2 twists in the pike position � and separated by a mere handful of points, no more than the scoring demerit of a single un-pointed toe.

A money dive for Heymans, reigning world champion in this event and one of Canada's few tiffany Olympic gold candidates.

"That's her most consistent dive,'' said Michel Larouche, Heymans' personal coach.

"Her best dive, she never misses it,'' said teammate Myriam Boileau.

But on the most important night of her life, she did.

Hurdled off the platform just fine, was gorgeous in the air, all amplitude and sharp lines, graceful and polished in her rotations. And then, one tiny error, a misjudgment of her distance from the water, puncturing the surface at a slight angle.

But diving is a sport of small mistakes with big consequences.

"I had a really good start but I just opened a little too late,'' the 22-year-old from St. Lambert said afterwards, her cornflower blue eyes misting pink. "I kind of went in on my back.''

It was her worst effort of the night. "I wish I could go back up there and do my last dive like I'm able to do it.''

There was no opportunity for that. Heymans could do nothing but stand aside and watch as the last four competitors executed their dives.

Two of them, Australia's Chantelle Newbery and China's Lao Lishi, had gold in their crosshairs. Neither gagged. Gold slipped away to Newbery. Silver slipped away to Lishi. And then, even the final diver of the evening, Aussie Loudy Tourky, acquitted herself just well enough to snatch up bronze.

Out of the medals, Heymans finished fourth. Boileau, rebounding nicely from tremendous back woes over the past two years, was delighted with sixth.

"I don't know what happened,'' said diving head coach Mitch Geller. "Everybody's disappointed that we're not walking away with a medal. There's no explanation. I know we've really let people down here.''

It had all felt so possible for Heymans, especially after an outstanding fourth dive that had propelled her into second place, just as the other women seemed to be vulnerable. That effort, a reverse 3 1/2, was the dicey one for Heymans and she'd pulled it off beautifully, earning the highest score in the round.

"That was the biggest nail-biter,'' said Geller. "When she put that down, we thought she had it. And she probably felt a bit like that too.''

At the world championships a year ago, Heymans had come from behind, overtaking the Chinese with a stunning final dive. Perhaps, Geller suggested, the thrill of that gaudy fourth dive here had worked against Heymans, mentally, causing her to relax a little too prematurely. "Maybe she needs to be real hungry, going into that last dive as well.''

It's a theory. But Larouche had a slightly different skew on things. "The reverse certainly gives her a little bit of energy. Maybe she had a little too much (energy) for the last dive.''

Heymans sounded as if she shared that view. "I was really aggressive. I had a lot of energy and I didn't control it. I should have controlled it.''

For Australia, it was the first Olympic diving title in 80 years. A few nights earlier, Newbery had won bronze in three-metre synchronized diving with her partner, Irina Lashko. And her husband, Robert, took bronze in both three-metre and platform synchro diving here.

Heymans, who will contest in the springboard as well � "three- metre is not my best'' � will go home with at least one medal, the platform synchro bronze she shared with Blythe Hartley.

But it's not the medal or the event she had envisioned.

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