Bill Beacon

MONTREAL (CP) - Even though she is at home, Emilie Heymans is staying at a hotel with the rest of the Canadian diving team, going to the pool on the team bus.

The defending world champion on the 10-metre platform is thrilled about competing in front of family and friends at the FINA World Aquatic Championships, but doesn't want to break her routine. "I'm trying to do it like I was in another city," Heymans said.

Heymans practised Tuesday at the shining new diving facility on Ile Ste-Helene, an island near downtown Montreal that is a short hop from her home in suburban St-Lambert, Que.

"This is home. My family is here, but you have to stay focused on what you have to do."

Heymans and the men's defending 10-metre champion Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., are Canada's top medal contenders and the object of most local attention going into the world championships, which begin with opening ceremonies on Saturday.

There will be stiff competition, mainly from Chinese, Russian, Australian and Cuban opponents, and in a tricky sport where one slip can cost a medal, Heymans isn't about to guarantee any prizes.

At the Olympics in Athens last summer, she had a rough day in the platform finals and finished fourth as Australia's Chantelle Newbury won gold.

And at the World Cup finals in Mexico last month, she was edged for the gold by China's Dongjin Jia.

"I just think about doing my best performance," said Heymans, who came away from Athens with a bronze medal in 10-metre synchronized diving with partner Blythe Hartley of Vancouver.

"I don't go in saying I've got to beat this person or that person. It's a waste of energy and time."

Despatie has the same approach.

"You can't think about medals," he said. "We just focus on the job.

"We want to see how it will be when it starts. There'll be a lot of people and energy in the stands. We know there'll be friends and family there. We just have to stay focused."

Despatie won't defend his 10-metre title in Montreal as a back injury kept him from training. He will compete off the one-metre and three-metre springboards, however.

Workers were putting the finishing touches on the facilities for diving, swimming, water polo, synchronized swimming and open water swimming on Tuesday, when the Canadian divers began practising in the competition pool.

Their final preparation camp in Georgia was cut short by one day last weekend by a hurricane.

A minor storm was still boiling over whether Canada will enter a team in the men's three-metre synchronized diving event.

The team was to have been Arturo Miranda and Philippe Comtois of Montreal, but Comtois refused to dive with Miranda, who was suspended for six months in March amid allegations he had sex with an underage female diver.

The suspension was lifted on June 29 and although Miranda will compete in the three-metre individual event, Seguin said it has not yet been decided whether to allow him to dive with another partner in synchro. Miranda has been training with Ruben Ross of Regina.

Miranda had no comment on the charges, but was miffed that Diving Canada would not confirm his spot in the synchro event.

Seguin said team management is "still studying the question," that Diving Canada opposed lifting the suspension and that the case has been referred to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre, which usually needs weeks to reach a decision.

Seguin appealed to the media not to question athletes about the Miranda case, but he needn't have bothered. The divers got the message.

"We're staying out of that," said Despatie. "It's up to Arturo to deal with that."

Miranda and Comtois had an outside shot at a medal, and so do some teammates.

Hartley, who will compete in the one-metre and three-metre events, won bronze on the one-metre board at the last world championships in 2003.

But after taking a year off university to train in Montreal for the 2004 Olympics, she returned to work on her communications major at the University of Southern California last fall.

"This year I was slower getting going," she said. "I was busy with school.

"I feel quite good, but I've felt a little better."

Myriam Boileau of Montreal, who was seventh off the 10-metre tower in Athens, will be happy just to reach the finals (top 12).

"I don't do the big (difficult and higher-scoring) dives," she said. "I had back surgery so I couldn't learn them for the Olympics and this year I had to finish my degree (in social work), so I didn't have time.

"I want finals, but I'm not thinking podium."

Diving begins Sunday with the men's three-metre and women's 10-metre synchro events. The women's duo has Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval, who were third at the World Cup finals in Mexico. Heymans and Hartley opted to concentrate on their individual events this time.

The women's one-metre is on Monday, with Hartley and Martha Dale of Edmonton on the board.

Tuesday has the men's three-metres, with Despatie and Miranda, while Wednesday will be the women's 10-metres, with Heymans and Boileau entered.

Next Thursday sees the men's one-metre, with Despatie and Ross, followed the next day by the women's three-metres with Hartley and Melanie Rinaldi of Montreal.

On July 23 is the men's 10-metres, with Wegadesk Gorup-Paul of Victoria and Nicolas Leblanc of Longueuil, Que.

The final day of diving has the men's 10-metre synchro with Gorup-Paul and Riley McCormick of Victoria and the women's three-metre synchro with Dale and Mandy Moran of Thunder Bay, Ont.

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