Bill Beacon

MONTREAL � Canada's run of diving medals ended with two loud splashes Wednesday at the world aquatic championships.

Defending champion Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., botched two dives and finished fourth as former Olympic champion Laura Ann Wilkinson of the United States captured the gold medal in the women's 10-metre platform event.

On a day in which all the top contenders blew at least one dive, Heymans, 23, landed poorly on her first and fourth attempts in the five-dive final round to slip from first to fourth place.

"It's not the position, it's the performance,'' said a downcast Heymans, who was greeted with a loud ovation for each dive by a near-capacity hometown crowd of about 4,000. "The two dives I missed, I rarely miss in practice. That's what's disappointing.

"I wasn't here to win, I was here to do a good performance and dive well and be happy and proud of myself. If I had done a really, really good performance but someone else did better, I'd be happy.''

Wilkinson, 27, who won gold on the tower at the 2000 Olympics in Australia, recovered from a weak second dive to win with 564.87 points.

Loudy Tourky of Australia, who flopped on her fourth dive, won silver with 551.25 points, while Tong Jia of China, whose first and third dives were ugly, took the bronze with 550.98. Heymans had 546.84 points. Myriam Boileau of Montreal failed to qualify for the final.

"I missed in the second round,'' said Wilkinson, of The Woodlands, Texas. "I was too excited trying to hit it and came out a little early.

"After that, it kinda took the pressure off. I had missed, so I thought I was down and I just decided to give it all I had. I just had a blast, trying to do my dives the best I could.''

Canada had won a medal a day since diving competition started Sunday, when Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., won bronze in the 10-metre synchronized event.

Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver followed with gold on the one-metre springboard Monday and Alexandre Despatie took gold on the three-metre board Tuesday.

Crowd favourite Despatie is back in the men's one-metre springboard event Thursday.

It was the second medal of the meet for both Tourky and Jia. Jia won gold with Pei Lin Yuan in the 10-metre synchro, just ahead of Tourky and Chantelle Newberry.

Newberry, the 2004 Olympic champ, had three nasty dives and finished seventh.

Heymans entered the five-dive final round in the lead, but over-rotated her entry on her first attempt and then landed almost flat on her back on an inward 3.5 tuck on her fourth dive

. It drew the lowest scores of any dive in the final, an average of 3.5 out of 10 from the seven judges.

After her poor opening dive, Heymans produced her best, drawing three perfect 10s for a backward 3.5 tuck.

Coach Michel Larouche said Heymans lacked intensity in practice this year and, without elaborating, said she needed to sort out her personal life. Heymans returned to university this year after spending 2004 training for the Olympics.

"In the last four months, the consistency in practice wasn't there,'' said Larouche. "She was hitting about three out of five in practice and that's exactly what she did here.''

Heymans disagreed.

"There wasn't a great difference from practice,'' she said. "I took more time off because I went back to school, but I practised just as hard as before.''

Heymans won the platform event at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona but slumped to fourth at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

There was sympathy from the medallists, but Tourky and Wilkinson both alluded to the turbulent nature of diving, where even the best slip up occasionally.

"There are probably five or six girls that can take it on the day,'' said Tourky. "I think Emilie did an amazing job.

"I think the crowd probably added pressure to her. But she's an amazing driver and just because she's not on the podium doesn't mean that everyone doesn't hold her in highest regard.''

Wilkinson had surgery on her right wrist in January and said she was glad just to be able to compete at the world championships. Now she has her eye on the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"Ending up on the top of the podium _ I had hoped for it, but I didn't really expect it,'' she said.

Boileau was 14th in the semifinals and only the top 12 went to the finals.

She was seventh on the tower at the 2004 Olympics, but cut down her training this year to concentrate on completing her degree in social work at the University of Montreal.

"That's one reason my dives were not as sharp as they were last year and also I only did one international meet this year,'' she said.

Boileau said she would return to intensive training in September, particularly on the more difficult and higher-scoring dives.

In combination synchronized swimming, Canada made a big technical error in its routine and finished fourth. Russia won the gold medal with 99.333 points. Japan was second with 97.833 and Spain was third with 87.167. Canada had 95.834.

In open water swimming, Edith van Dijk of the Netherlands won the women's 10-kilometre event in one hour 56 minutes and 0.5 seconds. Federica Vitale of Italy won silver in 1:56:02. and Britta Kamrau of Germany took bronze in 1:56:04.

Karley Stutzel of Victoria was 15th in 1:57:29.

Chip Peterson of the United States won the men's 10-kilometre race in 1:46:38 with Thomas Lurz of Germany second in 1:46:45 and Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria was third in 1:46:50.

Gerald Ballem of Calgary was 11th, the best result by a Canadian man in the event at the world championships. His time was 1:47:39. Bellam, 27, said it was probably his last open water race.

"The training is starting to take it's toll,'' said Bellam. "I'm pretty honoured to go out with the best result.''

In men's water polo, the Canadian team lost 11-3 to Hungary, the defending Olympic champions. Aaron Feltham of Lindsay, Ont., Kevin Graham of Regina and Jean Sayegh of Quebec City scored for Canada, which lost 19-4 to Croatia in its opening match Monday.

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