Canada finishes 7th in men's 10m synchro at Diving World Cup

FILE: Canada's Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray compete during the men's diving synchronized 10m platform final at the 19th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Canada's Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray finished seventh in the men's 10-metre platform synchronized event at the World Aquatics Diving World Cup on Friday.

Lian Junjie and Yang Hao of China captured gold, Kirill Boliukh and Oleksii Sereda of Ukraine won silver and Noah Williams and Matthew Lee of Britain earned bronze at the Olympic Pool.

Wiens, a 21-year-old from Pike Lake, Sask., and the 20-year-old Zsmobor-Murray of Pointe-Claire, Que., finished with a combined score of 360.99 points, 95.73 behind the leaders.

The duo, which was in second after the first round, steadily dropped in the standings after scoring below expectations on three dives, including a reverse three-and-a-half somersaults tuck for their fifth that scored a 46.92 and saw them drop from sixth to eighth.

On the second dive, a back dive pike, they scored a 45.60 after falling slightly out of sync. They fell from fourth to sixth place after the fourth dive, their most difficult, which scored a 67.71.

Last year, Wiens and Zsmoborg-Murray made Canadian diving history by winning bronze in the same competition at the world championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Pamela Ware, 30, of Greenfield Park, Que., and Mia Vallee, 22, of Beaconsfield, Que., were scheduled to dive in the women's three-metre springboard final later Friday.

Earlier in the pool, 21-year-old Bryden Hattie of Victoria advanced to the men's three-metre springboard final on Sunday by finishing eighth with a 393.90 score in the preliminaries.

Caeli McKay, a 23-year-old Tokyo Olympian from Calgary, and 31-year-old Celina Toth of Victoria both advanced to the women's 10-metre platform final on Sunday. McKay finished third in the preliminaries with a 370.35 score, Toth was 11th with 280.10. Victoria's Renee Batalla, Canada's youngest diver in the event at 16 years old, finished 17th, missing the cut.

The event continues with more individual preliminary rounds on Saturday morning, with the women's 10-metre synchro and men's three-metre synchro finals following in the afternoon. Both Wiens and Zsombor-Murray will compete individually in the men's 10-metre platform preliminary rounds on Saturday.

The individual finals and team event will on be on Sunday.

It's Montreal's first senior diving event since 2020 and the second of three World Cup events this year. The first was held in Xi'an, China in April, the third is a Super Final this August in Berlin.

Over 20 countries are competing this weekend, including China, which won all nine gold medals at the first World Cup event.

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2023.