Bill Beacon

MONTREAL (CP) - The weight that diver Alexandre Despatie now carries at the world aquatic championships comes from the two gold medals around his neck.

Despatie, who for months soldiered on as honourary spokesman of a foundering event, won his second gold on Thursday with a stunning performance on the one-metre springboard.

The Laval, Que., diver won with a personal best 489.69 points from six dives and beat two Chinese former world champions - silver medallist Xiang Xu with 445.68 points and bronze medallist Feng Wang with 445.56.

The 20-year-old had won the three-metre event on Tuesday and, with his 2003 title on the 10-metre platform, became the first diver ever to win gold in all three individual events at the world championships.

"Definitely, it's celebration time," Despatie said. "It's been a tough year and I couldn't ask for more."

Technically, he holds all three titles at once, since a new world champion won't be crowned until the platform final here on Saturday. Despatie won't be in it.

He twisted his back when his feet touched the platform during a botched dive in Quebec City in January and was physically and psychologically unable to train in that event for the worlds.

Instead, he entered the three-and one-metre springboards and won both before roaring, sell-out crowds in his home town.

"For sure, I'll be on the 10-metre again next year," he said. "I never doubted that I was going to go back to it.

"At first, I was scared to go back because of the accident, but it's gone now. I see the guys diving 0 metres and I miss it a lot."

At about the same time he was injured, the sport's world governing body FINA pulled the world championships from Montreal, only to reinstate them in February when mayor Gerald Tremblay, after furious lobbying, provided the required financial guarantees.

"Everybody had such a hard time through this whole process - Athletes, organizers, coaches, everybody," he said. "The organizing committee did a marvellous job bringing them back.

"It was hard for me as spokesman. I had a lot of people coming up to me saying I had to win to save the games, which was very hard to take. I didn't know how to react to that.

"But the mayor of Montreal told me twice that he was very proud of me and that I did my job. I think I did my job and I'm glad these guys are happy."

His victory ended China's string of three straight one-metre gold medals - Zhoucheng Yu in 1998, Wang in 2001 and Xu in 2003.

"First of all, I'd like to say that Alexander right now is the biggest enemy for the Chinese diving team," Xu said with a wide grin through an interpreter. "No matter if it's one-metre, three-metres or 10-metres.

"So even in future, the Chinese team would like to make him their object. Anyway, I'd like to congratulate him."

It was Canada's fourth diving medal of the week, one better than their previous high of three at the 2003 worlds and biting into Chinese dominance of the sport.

"I think for the past couple of years Canada has been setting a standard in diving," he said. "That's great.

"We need kids that are willing to work hard, that are willing to love the sport and do anything for it. That's the way I am. Diving is my life. Hopefully, our program keeps growing and we keep having these kinds of results on the international level."

To deal with the pressure of expectations, Despatie said he went to a training camp before the worlds, shutting himself off from family, friends and all other distractions.

"That's what made it possible," he said. "I was so focused on diving I couldn't see anything else. Now, My worlds are finished and I had a great week."

Despatie was first in the preliminary round, first in the semifinals and first in the final, each time beating his previous one-metre personal best of 434 points.

"For everybody, one-metre is just an extra event," said Despatie. "It's not an Olympic event. We only have it at world championships and Commonwealth Games, but it's an event and that makes it important. Obviously, we've been working on it."

Now Despatie is considering diving in all three events at coming meets. Both the 2006 Commonwealth games and 2007 world championships are in Melbourne, Australia.

The longer-range goal is the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"So, back to training in September," he said.

Reuben Ross of Regina was 16th in the preliminaries with 335.55 points and failed to qualify for the semifinals.

It was a first taste of world championship competition for Ross.

"I thought I did pretty well," said the 19-year-old, who has lived and trained in Edmonton the last three years. "I was only 10 points from the semifinals. I made a little mistake on one of my dives and that probably cost me those 10 points."

Ross competed in the men's three-metre synchronized diving event with partner Arturo Miranda of Pointe-Claire, Que., on Sunday. They also didn't reach the final.

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