(Montreal) The Canadian duo of Nathan Zsombor-Murray and Rylan Wiens couldn’t build on their momentum from last year after settling for seventh place in the 10-metre synchro event on Friday at the Coupe of the Montreal diving world.
Zsombor-Murray of Pointe-Claire and Wiens of Saskatoon, clearly out of sorts, amassed 360.99 points in the final at the Olympic Park pool.
The podium was unsurprisingly dominated by the Chinese Junjie Lian and Hao Yang (456.72 points), ahead of the British Noah Williams and Matthew Lee (403.98), as well as the Mexicans Randal Willars Valdez and Jose Balleza Isaias (398, 16).
The Canadians looked rough from the second round of the competition, which had six in total, as they attempted a back jump.
Their situation worsened on lap four, after Zsombor-Murray missed his vertical before entering the water. He and his partner were attempting a four and a half forward somersault at the time.
Then, on the fifth pass, the two men screwed up their reverse triple and a half somersault, temporarily relegating them to eighth and penultimate place.
They recovered well in round six, however, with a double and a half back somersault with a flawless twist and a half.
Zsombor-Murray, who has just celebrated his 20th birthday, and Wiens were therefore unable to repeat their exploits of 2022.
They became the first Canadian duo in history to medal in the 10m synchro at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. They had then climbed on the third step of the podium.
The representatives of the maple leaf added to it a few weeks later by obtaining silver in this event at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Meanwhile, Bryden Hattie of Victoria, B.C. easily qualified for the 3m springboard final on Sunday.
On the women’s side, Caeli McKay of Calgary and Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., advanced to the 10m final on Sunday. Renee Batalla of Edmonton, however, was ruled out.
For their part, Quebecers Pamela Ware, from Greenfield Park, and Mia Vallée, from Beaconsfield, will participate in the 3m synchro final later on Friday.
Ware and Vallée started training together for this event earlier this week.
“It works great! We have a very great ability to adapt, which means that even if we don’t have the same call jump, the result is super good. We follow each other, and we tell ourselves that if it doesn’t work, then we’ll try something else. We get along really well, so I think it’s going to be fine,” Ware said ahead of the competition on Wednesday.
Last season, Vallée was paired with Margo Erlam of Calgary, and they notably won the bronze medal in the 3m synchro at the Commonwealth Games.
Canadian team coach Mary Caroll said earlier this week that Ware, Vallée and Erlam will be called upon to compete together to find the best possible combination while waiting for Mélissa to return to the pool. Citrini-Beaulieu, still injured.
The Montreal Diving World Cup will continue Saturday and Sunday. This is the first international competition to take place there since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
This diving competition is also the only one scheduled on the international calendar before the World Championships, which will take place in Fukuoka, Japan, from July 14 to 22.
