Montréal, May 25, 2024 – All three Canadian duos taking part in Saturday’s synchronized events climbed onto the podium at the Junior America’s Cup in Mission Viejo, California. Of the three teams, two claimed gold: Keira Lu and Alexa Fung in the girls’ 3m event, and Christopher Booler and Emmitt Reesor in the boys’ 3m.
Lu and Fung were the first to make their mark for Canada, winning a spirited battle against Australia’s Alexandria Sando and Lucy Dovison.
The Canadians’ two final dives, good for 61.20 and 56.28 points, brought their final score to 261.96 and propelled them to the top of the podium, where they squeezed out the Australians (261.78) by 0.18 points.
“We had a lot of fun! We had no expectations, so we weren’t nervous during the finals,” said Lu, following the competition.
“We only trained together once before this competition, but it seems to have paid off! Mostly, we just had a great time. I didn’t expect this for our first time!” added her partner, Fung.
The two Canadians were particularly proud of their fourth dive, a forward double somersault and a half with a twist in pike position. “It went well! It was a new one for Alexa and me. I haven’t done it often. We were glad to be doing it together,” said Lu.
Lila Gokiert and Daniela Duvreska, who were also competing as a pair for the first time, were not far behind. They remained in the running until the very end of the competition, securing bronze with a total score of 259.69.
“We tried a few dives together in Calgary a few weeks ago, but we haven’t done anything since then. We had to make a few adjustments, but overall, it went well, and we’re happy with the result,” explained Duvreska.
“Because we didn’t get to prepare very much, we didn’t really have any expectations for this event, but something clicked at the start of the competition,” continued Gokiert. “Our timing was good, and it went much better than we expected.”
A few hours after they watched their teammates celebrate on the podium, Christopher Booler and Emmitt Reesor kept the party going for Canada by dominating the men’s synchronized event on the 3m springboard.
The two Canadian divers remained relatively unchallenged during the day’s final competition, finishing with a total of 300.54 points and gold medals around their necks. Benjamin Wilson and Lachlan Abbott of Australia finished second with 288.48 points. Joshua Sollenberger and Ivor Brown of the USA rounded off the top three.
“I had a great weekend, and I’m really happy with my performances!” said Reesor, who won a total of three medals in as many competitions. “Chris and I didn’t get much time to train together for the synchronized events. We did Dresden [Germany] a month ago, but this was definitely our best competition. We beat our record by about 30 points, so we’re really happy!” »
“Emmitt was able to adapt to my dives, which really helped a lot with our timing. He made some pretty big adjustments,” said Booler.
The Junior America’s Cup will conclude on Sunday. A total of 12 competitions will be held.
More information:
Alexandra Piché
Manager, Communications
Diving Canada
C: 514 625-5513
alexandra@diving.ca