Louis Daignault
Canadian Sport News for Diving Canada

VICTORIA, May 2, 2003 -A lexandre Despatie of Laval, won the silver medal Friday night on men�s three-metre springboard while �milie Heymans of St-Lambert, added bronze on women�s 10-metre tower to open the sixth stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.

On men�s three-metreTroy Dumais of the U.S., took the gold with 461.16 points followed by the 17-year-old Despatie with 446.40 while Antonio Ally of Britain was third at 421.11. Arturo Miranda of Mississauga, Ont., also reached the final and was fifth at 403.59.

Philippe Comtois of Laval was 12th and Jeff Liberty of Calgary 16th.

On women�s tower, Loudy Tourky of Australia was the winner at 392.31 as she upset Olympic champion Laura Wilkinson of the U.S., second at 350.55. Heymans, first after the semifinal, was third at 325.23 for her fifth medal this season on the Grand Prix and Blythe Hartley of Calgary fourth at 298.14.

Marie-�ve Marleau of Montreal was 10th and Roseline Filion of Montreal 12th.

Despatie, Miranda, Heymans and Hartley all earned berths for this summer�s world championships on Friday. The top-two Canadians this weekend on each board (three and 10-metre) qualify for the Canadian team for the 2003 World Aquatic Championships July 13-27 in Barcelona.

��Getting the world team berth is a big load off my shoulders,�� said Heymans after the semifinal. ��I only made one mistake and that happened in the preliminaries and it wasn�t a big factor. I dove well. I kept the same list as earlier this season because it�s worked well so far.��

Competition continues Saturday with finals starting at 2 p.m. for the men�s and women�s 10-metre synchronized events and the women�s three-metre.

Put on line on May 2 by SVP