Canada’s Celina Toth captures silver at diving Grand Prix
Celina Toth of St. Thomas, Ont., emerged with the silver medal in women’s 10-metre tower on Friday at the second stop on the FINA Grand Prix diving circuit.
Andrea Spendolini Sirieix of Britain nailed her twisting dive for big scores in the final round to sneak past the Canadian for the gold with 330.50 points. Toth, who led after rounds 2-4 in the five-round final, took the silver at 329.35 and Jessica Parratto of the U.S. was third at 320.50.
»This was a hard event and I probably did these dives better than I’ve done them in a long time,» said Toth, 27, now based in Victoria. »This was perfect timing for me to have this kind of performance with the Olympic Trials two competitions away. My resiliency was a lot better.»
Toth is expected to battle for one of two Games spots on women’s tower at the Olympic trials in diving May 21-24 in Windsor, Ont. Her only scheduled competition before then is the Canadian Grand Prix stop, also in Windsor, the week before.
After placing fifth in Thursday’s preliminaries, Elaena Dick of Edmonton was sixth in her morning semifinal heat and took 11th overall. Only the top-three from each of the two semis advanced.
On men’s three-metre, Thomas Ciprik of Pointe-Claire, Que., advanced to his first career Grand Prix final and placed fourth with 347.95.
James Heatly of Britain took the gold with 424.25, Michael Hixon of the U.S. was second at 410.90 and Patrick Hausding of Germany third at 371.85.
»I made some errors in the final but also had some nice dives so for a first final I’m very satisfied,» said Ciprik. »I didn’t expect to get this far so to stand out among this great group of divers is very motivating.»
Ciprik, 16, just made the cut for the semis by placing 12th in Thursday’s prelims and was third in his semi with his best score of the day at 371.60.
Competition continues through to Sunday.
