Canada’s Abel and Ware win bronze in 3-metre synchro at aquatic worlds

Canadian divers Jennifer Abel and Pamela Ware earned bronze in the women’s three-metre synchronized springboard at the world championships on Saturday.

Abel, from Laval, Que., and Ware, a Beloeil, Que., native, scored 292.08 for Canada’s first medal at the event.

China’s Wu Minxia and Shi Tingmao took the gold, earning Wu a record sixth world title, while Italy’s Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape claimed silver with 307.80.

Abel is a two-time Olympian who teamed with Emilie Heymans the last two seasons earning bronze at the 2012 Olympics and silver at the last worlds in 2011 in Shanghai.

This year, Abel and Ware have enjoyed success together winning three international medals and two Canadian titles.

”I don’t think we have come close yet to reaching our full potential,” said Abel. ”I think we showed today how strong we are mentally by never giving up. We have a similar style and show a lot of height and power on our dives. I’m excited about the future.”

The Canadian pair had a rough start and were in 10th place with two dives remaining. However they climbed to sixth in the fourth round and third after their fifth and final twisting dive earned them a string of 7.5’s and 8.0’s.

Ware said the early rounds just fired her up.

”I was pretty angry going into that fourth dive,” said the 20-year-old. ”I was so pleased we got it in and then we sealed it with a great last dive.”

The Chinese pair’s almost flawless execution of all five dives framed by the dramatic backdrop of Barcelona’s skyline gave them the top total score of 338.40 points.

Wu has won nine world or Olympic gold medals in the three-metre synchronized springboard. The only major title to escape her was the 2005 world championship when she didn’t compete in the event.

This was Wu’s first major competition with Shi, who won gold in the one-metre springboard at the 2011 worlds.

Cagnotto and Dallape, who just missed the podium in London last summer by finishing fourth, got a slim early lead on the Chinese in the first round when they both performed a forward pike.

But Wu and Shi went ahead with the next dive and effectively decided the title with an inward two-and-a-half somersault pike on their third effort. They poured it on by getting a finals-best 78.30 points with a reverse pike with two-and-a-half somersaults with a twist thrown in on their fourth try.

Earlier, China’s Li Shixin topped the preliminaries in the men’s one-metre springboard.

Li, the defending one-metre springboard champion, led the men’s qualification for Monday’s final with 405 points, but a poor last dive let France’s Matthieu Rosset finish only 0.5 points behind.

Li looked ready to end the preliminaries with a commanding points difference until he missed with a three-and-a-half somersault pike on the sixth and final dive and barely edged Rosset for the top spot.

Illya Kvasha of Ukraine was third in qualifying, followed by Alejandro Chavez of Mexico in fourth and Sebastian Morales of Colombia in fifth.

Francois Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., placed 27th.

With files from The Associated Press