TAYLOR MISSES OUT ON MEDALS IN CANADA
Olympic silver medallist Leon Taylor was in top form at
the FINA Canada Cup Grand Prix yesterday, but despite starring
in the ten-metre platform final narrowly missed out on a medal.
The Sheffield tower ace scored an impressive 479.04 points
to finish fourth in a thrilling final at the Claude Robillard
Complex in Quebec, having eliminated China's Junghui Yang,
last year's winner, in the semis.
It was a gutsy performance from Athens hero Taylor, competing
in his first international meet for eight months having been
sidelined through injury.
Taylor won a silver medal after a starring performance at
last year's Canada Cup in Victoria, with Junghui a comfortable
winner with a staggering 570.42pts.
But the South Yorkshire splash sensation was happy with his
performance against a world-class field, although there was
no silverware this time.
Cuban Jose Guerra surprised everyone to win gold with 515.19pts,
with Olympic champion Jia Hu, of China, winning silver with
a score of 504.30pts.
Australia's Matthew Mitcham, the seventeen-year-old star of
the future, pipped Taylor to bronze with 496.11pts.
Mitcham led Taylor by 104 points going into the final round
of six dives, but Taylor still stood a chance of medalling
if he managed a run of perfect 10 scores.
He scored 86.64, but was happy with his performance after
such a long time on the sidelines.
"Fourth place is a real pain in the bum, but I couldn't
have asked for anymore after eight weeks out," said Taylor.
"To win a medal would have been nice. I dived well, but
so did the rest of the field. It was a great final and there
were some huge scores."
Taylor is hoping having been pushed all the way will help
with his preparation for the US Grand Prix in Fort Lauderdale
from May 12-15, the next serious competition on route to the
World Championships in July.
"I'm happy to be back and diving. I'm really tired, which
proves to me that I'm not fully fit yet.
"It was good to compete here, though. It's great preparation
for Fort Lauderdale. By then I should be nearly at full fitness."
Taylor was due to join forces with Peter Waterfield, his partner
for the synchronised ten-metre platform.
But Waterfield injured himself whilst warming up and was withdrawn
from the competition because of a bad back and a sore tricep.
The duo last dived together in Athens, winning many admirers
with silver at the Olympics.
"It would have been nice to have dived with Peter, but
it was a precautionary measure to withdraw him," added
Taylor. "Hopefully he'll be fit for Fort Lauderdale."
A view echoed by Steve Foley, Great Britain's National Diving
Performance Director.
Foley said: "We didn't want to risk Peter. He could have
aggravated his injuries and that might have hampered his preparation
for the World Championships.
"I'm hopeful he'll be fit to compete in America. It will
be nice to see him and Leon dive together. It's been a long
time since the Olympics."
Despite Waterfield's injury and Taylor's near medal miss,
there were plenty of positives to emerge from a successful
three-day meet for the British team.
Ten-metre platform synchro pairing Stacie Powell and Karen
Smith performed admirably in the women's final, finishing
fifth with 244.44pts.
Tandi Indergaard, from the City of Leeds, produced a credible
set of dives from a new list to reach this year's three-metre
springboard final, her best performance to date in senior
individual competition.
Indergaard also teamed up with Louise Van Hoof in the three-metre
synchro final on the last evening of competition, but although
they both performed well had to settle for sixth position
with 253.17pts, 24 points off a place on the medals rostrum.
Sheffield's Tony Ally had to sit out and watch, though. Waterfield's
withdrawal meant he had no partner for the three-metre springboard
event.
The three-times Olympian will look to perform in America,
his first international competition of the season.
Promising youngster Brooke Graddon also gave a heartening
display in the women's ten-metre platform competition.
Progressing through the preliminaries with a personal best
score of 272.13pts to finish ninth, before bettering that
with 278.88 in the semis, where she finished a credible fifth.
Stacie Powell had a bad day in the individual competition,
finishing 18th from a field of 19 competitors. Some costly
mistakes only saw her score 203.70pts, but she bounced back
well in the synchro final with Smith.
The Canada leg of the FINA Grand Prix took place from 6-8
May in Montreal and the US leg is in Fort Lauderdale from
12-15 May.
Results:
MEN, 10m Platform final: 1, Jose Guerra (CUB)
515.19pts; 2, Jia Hu (CHN) 504.30; 3, Matthew Mitcham (AUS)
496.11; 4, Leon Taylor (GBR) 479.04; 5, Cassius Duran (BRA)
386.79; 6, Heiko Meyer (GER) 385.56.
3m Springboard final: 1, Alexandre Despatie
(CAN) 480.54; 2, Xiang Xu (CHN) 462.15; 3, He Chong (CHN)
458.07; 4, Cesar Castro (BRA) 433.44; 5, Jorge Betancourt
(CUB) 423.03; 6, Philippe Comtois (CAN) 409.08.
WOMEN, 10m Platform final: 1, Tong Jia (CHN)
427.41pts; 2, Tania Cagnotto (ITA) 355.23; 3, Loudy Tourky
(AUS) 328.86; 4, Juliana Veloso (BRA) 315.03; 5, Dongjin Jia
(CHN) 311.01; 6, Roseline Filion (CAN) 310.71.
10m Platform Synchronised final: 1, Tong
Jia/Chen Ni (CHN) 319.74; 2, Mai Nakagawa/Misako Yamashit
(JPN) 272.58; 3, Maxim Benfeito/Roseline Filion (CAN) 265.23;
4, Annett Gamm/Nora Subschinski (GER) 259.26; 5, Stacie Powell/Karen
Smith (GBR) 244.44; 6, Abril Lopez/Fernanda Gonzalez (MEX)
212.64; 7, Erin Savas/Katie Bell (USA) 208.92.
3m Springboard Synchronised final: 1, Ting Li/Jingjing
Guo (CHN) 320.10; 2, Ditte Kotzian/Conny Schmalfuss (GER)
293.25; 3, Natalia Umyskova/Anikin Pozdniak (RUS) 277.86;
4, Tatiana Oritz/Laura Sanchez (MEX) 271.74; 5, Nancilea Underwood/Christina
Loukas (USA) 263.28; 6, Tandi Indergaard/Louise Van Hoof (GBR)
253.17; 7, Mandy Moran/Martha Dale (CAN) 244.71; 8, Eftychia
Papavasilopoulou/Eleni Hatzimitrou (GRE) 237.12.
The British diving squad is as follows:
Tony Ally (Sheffield)
Leon Taylor (Sheffield)
Peter Waterfield (Southampton)
Sarah Barrow (Plymouth)
Brooke Graddon (Plymouth)
Tandi Indergaard
Stacie Powell (Bagiu Diving Academy)
Hayley Sage (Beaumont Diving Academy)
Karen Smith (Crystal Palace) - Canada only
Louise Van Hoof (City of Leeds)
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