Music: {allcanada} DESPATIE OUT AS CANADA NAMES DIVE TEAM FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

{allcanada} DESPATIE OUT AS CANADA NAMES DIVE TEAM FOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

OTTAWA -- Canada will send a nine-member diving team to the world aquatic championships but will be without injured two-time Olympic silver medallist Alexandre Despatie.

The team for the July 16-24 event in Shanghai was announced Tuesday.

Despatie withdrew from the worlds due to tendinitis and bursitis in his left knee. He hopes to heal in time to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London.

Veteran Emilie Heymans, of St-Lambert, Que., will compete on the three-meter board and in the three-metre synchronized diving event. The 29-year-old won medals at three straight Olympics in 10-metre events and then took silver when she switched to the three-metre board at the last world aquatic champions in Rome in 2009.

Jennifer Abel of Laval will dive from the one-metre and three-metre boards as well as the three-metre synchro.

Meahgan Benfeito of Montreal and Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., the top 10-metre synchro team, will also each compete in the individual tower event.

The men's tower synchro team has Kevin Geyson of Winnipeg and Eric Sehn of Edmonton. Sehn will also do the individual tower event along with Riley McCormick of Victoria.

Reuben Ross of Pilote Buke, Sask. and Francois Imbeau-Dulac of St-Lazare, Que., are on the one-metre and three-metre boards.

"With the 2012 London Games only one year away, these world championships will help us gauge our level of readiness in our key Olympic events," said Scott Cranham, high performance director at Diving Canada. "This competition has significant Olympic implications and our major focus in Shanghai is to qualify the maximum number of Olympic spots for Canada."