Graham Hughes
Divers Alexandre Despatie and Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., have made a big enough splash – or make that a small enough splash – in 3-metre springboard competitions this season that they'll be placed on Canada's Olympic team without having to go through final qualifying in 10 days.
Despatie, who has two Olympic springboard silvers and three world championship gold medals and Abel, who has silver and bronze from last year's world championships, have been given exemptions from qualifying for the 3-metre springboard events at the May 26-27 Canadian Olympic trials, the governing body of the sport said Tuesday.
The pair "accumulated sufficient pre-qualification points to merit their exemption" Diving Canada said in a statement.
The organization has awarded them first place automatically. In addition, Diving Canada cancelled synchronized diving events scheduled for the Olympic pool in Montreal on Friday, May 25th, where Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval have been dominant on the tower and Abel has teamed up with Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Que., on the spring board.
"In accordance with Diving Canada's Olympic selection criteria, Alexandre and Jennifer will be deemed as the winners of their respective events and (each) will collect the associated six qualification points," the statement said. "The divers placing first and second at the trials in these two events will be awarded three qualification points and one qualification point respectively."
The revised schedule for the Olympic trials will have the women 3-metre final and men's 10-metre final on Saturday afternoon, with the men's 3-metre final and women's 10-metre final in Sunday afternoon.
Canada will name its full slate of Olympic diving nominees Monday May 28th.