The Hindu : Sport / Swimming : Despatie gives Canada another gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 21, 2005

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Sport - Swimming

Despatie gives Canada another gold

MONTREAL: : Alexandre Despatie gave Canada another gold medal to celebrate at the World swimming championships when he won the 3-metre springboard title on Tuesday. The Montreal resident was cheered loudly, especially for earning two perfect marks of 10 on his third dive.

Despatie finished first with 813.60 points against a stellar field that included defending World champion Alexander Dubroskok of Russia and 2003 silver medalist Peng Bo of China. American Troy Dumais earned the silver with 752.76 points. He Chong of China took the bronze with 730.77.

Highest point total

Despatie's point total was the highest at the World championships, bettering Dubroskok's winning score of 788.37 two years ago in Barcelona.

Despatie led after the preliminaries and semifinals, just as teammate Blythe Hartley did in winning the 1-meter title on Monday for Canada's first gold medal. A grinning Hartley shared a bear hug with Despatie, who blew kisses to the crowd.

The Chinese narrowly avoided being shut out for the first time in Montreal. Dubroskok badly missed his fifth dive, dropping him from third to fifth and allowing He back into medal contention.

The Chinese won two golds on Sunday in synchronized diving, and a silver in women's 1-meter on Monday.

It was Dumais' second medal of the meet, having shared a bronze in 3-meter synchronized with his brother Justin, who didn't make the individual springboard final.

Tied at top spot

Canada and China were tied atop the medals standings with two golds each. The Chinese also have a silver. Canada has a bronze. The United States has three silvers and a bronze.

Last summer, Peng held off Despatie to win the 3-meter title at the Athens Games. But Peng finished fourth on Tuesday. Dubroskok ended up fifth. — AP

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