Double Gold for Canadian Divers at Pan Am Games

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, July 26. ALEXANDRE Despatie and the synchro pair of Emilie Heymans and Marie-Eve Marleau both successfully defended their titles in diving action at the Pan American Games.

On men's three-meter, Despatie totaled 503.65 points for his sixth career Pan Am Games medal. He also won the event at the 2003 Games. Cesar Castro of Brazil was second at 492.70 and Troy Dumais of the U.S., third at 484.25.

"It was a great day for me,'' said Despatie, who won bronze Wednesday on three-meter synchro with Arturo Miranda of Pointe-Claire, Que. ‘'I'm pretty happy with today's outcome. I was very consistent in my dives during prelims and kept the consistency to a higher level for finals.''

Despatie faced some unusual distractions for divers. The crowd booed the three-time world champion before his final two dives as their home country diver stayed in contention for the gold and the weather was unseasonably cool.

‘'The conditions were not easy,'' he said. ‘'It was very cold and windy especially during prelims. The crowd was also a new experience for me. It really tested my concentration."

Heymans and Marleau totaled 327.30 points to edge Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz Galicia of Mexico in second at 325.14. Haley Ishimatsu and Mary Beth Dunnichay of the U.S., were third at 297.54.

‘'We had great practices leading up and we were able to duplicate that in the competition today,'' said Heymans. ‘'We had a lot of fund today but there's still a lot of room for improvement.''

After their gold medal performance at the 2003 Pan Am Games in Santo Domino, Marleau and Heymans did not compete again together until last month at a Grand Prix in. They won the gold medal in their return in Rome then won bronze the following week at a Grand Prix in Germany.

‘'We have good chemistry and get along great,'' said Marleau. ‘'We're both strong individual divers as well and it doesn't take us long to dive well together. For the future we plan to continue. Our next event is this fall at the World Series of diving.''

Special thanks to Diving Canada for contributing this report.

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