Sport Shorts: Synchro Divers Decked in Silver
Synchro Success: Canadian ladies put on a show at the latest FINA World Series diving event in Sheffield, UK. On Friday, the sychro team of Jennifer Abel (Laval, Que.) and triple Olympic medallist Emilie Heymans (St-Lambert, Que.) continued to close the gap on the world leaders. They won silver in 3-metre synchro, second only to the Chinese pair of Zi He and Minxia Wu. Abel and Heymans also won silver last month in Beijing. Friday on the 10-metre tower, Roseline Filion (Laval) finished 5th, narrowing missing a medal.
On Saturday, Filion reached that podium, teaming with Montreal’s Meaghan Benfeito in the 10-metre synchro event. The pair won silver, again behind a Chinese pair, this time Ruolin Chen and Chan Wang. The Canadian duo has introduced a new inward dive this season and it is paying off. Jennifer Abel hit the podium again Saturday, taking home bronze in the 3-metre springboard. It is her third individual bronze this season. The World Series circuit ends next week in Mexico.
Lamaze On Top Again: Eric Lamaze, Olympian champion show jumper, started off the European spring season with a flourish. He just doesn’t slow down since winning gold three years ago at the Beijing Games, as he took the victory on Saturday at the CSI5 Paris Horse Show. Again he did so on the back of his amazing stallion, Hickstead.
Hard as a Rock One week after Winnipeg’s Jeff Stoughton won the world curling title for Canada, Olympic champion Kevin Martin captured the Grand Slam finale. Martin’s Edmonton rink defeated Sweden 6-3 to take the crown. It is Martin’s 17th career Grand Slam championship.
64 Saves: At the women’s World Hockey Championships, Canada beat Kazakhstan 7-0 on Sunday but the real story came in the opposition’s net. Kazak goaltender Daria Obydennova made 64 saves on the heavily favoured Canadians, just one day after making 52 saves in a close loss to Finland. Canada is 2-0 to start the tournament.
Skaters Getting Set: The postponed World Figure Skating Championships begin in one week. Originally set for Tokyo, they will run in Moscow from April 25 to May 1.
