Bill Beacon

MONTREAL (CP) - It was a first taste of world championship competition for Wegadesk Gorup-Paul on Saturday and the Victoria diver got a good look at what he's up against.

Gorup-Paul reached the semifinals despite one weak dive, but wasn't able to join the elite group of 12 in the final at the world aquatic championship. Nicolas Leblanc of Longueuil, Que., was eliminated in the preliminary round.

"Overall I think I did pretty good," the 17-year-old said. "My reverse 3.5 is what kept me from making final.

"That was a critical dive for me and it's also the hardest dive on my list so it was important that I put that down. But hopefully next time it will be better."

Jia Hu of China needed a superb final dive to win the event over Jose Antonio Guerra of Cuba, who won his country's first world championship medal ever.

Hu had 698.01 points, Guerra had 691.14 and bronze medallist Gleb Galperin of Russia had 656.19.

China has 10 diving medals at the championships so far, including four gold. China has a medal in each of the eight diving events so far.

Hu succeeded Alexandre Despatie of Laval, Que., who won on the 10-metre tower at the last world championship in 2003 in Barcelona.

Despatie twisted his back during a botched dive in Quebec City in January and was unable to train on the tower. Instead, perhaps the world's top all-around diver won gold on the one-metre and three-metre springboards earlier this week.

When Despatie, 20, returns to the platform next year, his competition at national events will likely come from Gorup-Paul and 13-year-old Riley McCormick, who both train at the Boardworks club in Victoria.

"I'd have to train a lot harder than I do now to get as good as Alex," Gorup-Paul said. "He's on a totally different level.

"He's head and tails ahead of even the rest of the best in the world so it would be really hard for me to get to that level."

Gorup-Paul and McCormick, the youngest athlete in any sport at the world championships, will dive together in the men's 10-metre synchronized event on the closing day of diving competition Sunday.

"Hopefully, we can put together five good dives and come out with a good placing," said Gorup-Paul. "I haven't seen the other teams, so I don't know how we are against them."

Boardworks, under coach Trevor Palmatier, has been closing the gap in recent years on the powerhouse CAMO club of Montreal, which has produced Despatie, Olympic medallist Emilie Heymans of St-Lambert, Que., and the bronze medallists in the women's 10-metre synchronized event, Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion.

Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver, B.C., who won gold on the women's one-metre springboard, trained at Boardworks for two months before the world championship.

"CAMO's been the gold standard of diving not only in the country but in most of the world and that's what we've been trying to achieve as well," said Palmatier. "We've come close to beating them a few times.

"In the medals from junior nationals last year, we each got 10 and the rest of Canada got four."

Russia won the gold medal in team synchronized swimming with 99.334 points, including six 10.0s. The Russians already had won the combination and duet events. Canada was fifth with 94.917.

Japan captured the silver with 97.834, while Spain earned the bronze with 97.750, including two 10.0s for artistic impression.

Gorup-Paul, a Mi'kmaq native, was born in Montreal but moved to B.C. as a child and ended up living and diving in Victoria.

McCormick, who started diving at four and was one of Palmatier's first students when Boardworks opened in 1996, is considered most likely to succeed Despatie as Canada's top tower diver.

Palmatier wouldn't be surprised to see them compete together at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

"In three years, it'll be close between Wegadesk, Riley and Alex," he said. "Of course, Alex is the front runner, but each year we're closing in on his standards. "Riley has already broken one of his junior records."

The synchro will be McCormick's only event at the worlds, but it should be a valuable learning experience. Despatie was 13 when he won his first major international medal at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia.

It was certainly an eye-opener for Gorup-Paul, who got an big ovation for each dive from the near sellout crowd of about 4,000.

"A world championship is a lot harder than a junior or even senior nationals in Canada because there's so many more good divers," he said. "We have good divers in Canada, but at the world level, they're all good, so it's important that you hit every single dive - not five out of six."

Leblanc finished 22nd in the preliminaries, but only the top 18 advanced to the semifinals.

"I have to improve all my dives," said Leblanc, 23, who intends to keep competing through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. "I think I can improve my points and get to the final.

"I want to reach finals. I know I have the potential."

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