March 29, 2004
Ian Busby
Blythe Hartley pulled herself out of the water after winning the three-metre springboard and passed Alexandre Despatie on the pool deck at the Talisman Centre. Despatie threw his arms around the diver and exclaimed: "You're a superstar!"
With Hartley's new Canadian record of 621.21 points from the 3m final, Despatie wasn't far off in his assessment.
But just hours earlier, the prodigal Despatie was wiping out the competition on the 10-metre platform at the winter senior Canadian diving championships.
"It's funny. Alex and I are really close and we almost have a brother-sister relationship," said Hartley, a 21-year-old from Vancouver. "We have very similar personalities and we joke with one another. After an event, I'll say, 'You're so good. I should bow to you.'
"It's fun but I'm definitely not at his level. He's amazing and I respect him. I'm in 'wow' of him really. But we understand each other really well."
Hartley bested synchronized diving partner Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Que., who was second with 534.54 points. Edmonton's Megan Farrow was third with 524.82 points.
Despatie scored 695.13 points in winning his 10m event, easily surpassing Christopher Kalec of Laval, Que., with 599.64 and Winnipeg's Kevin Geyson at 540.03. Calgary's Erik Petursson finished sixth with 511.23 points.
The 18-year-old Despatie has dominated Canadian diving since bursting onto the scene and becoming the youngest athlete to win a medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games with a gold on the 10m platform.
In any Canadian event Despatie dives in, the rest of the field is left battling for silver.
Kalec won that fight yesterday, despite not hitting his second-last dive the way he wanted.
"It is fighting for second, Alex is a level ahead of us," Kalec said. "A big level ahead of us. If he didn't even do his last dive he would have won, that kind of tells you the level of his performance."
Counting Despatie's 3m win Saturday, the diver from Laval now has 33 national titles.
The winter nationals completed a month of competition in Russia, Germany and Spain, so Despatie and the other national squad members are looking forward to a team vacation, which begins Saturday in Cuba.
"It's great to be going to relax and cool down a bit," Despatie said. "Usually September is the only vacation time we have all year. It's nice that we were able to find some extra time this year."
But then, following fun and sun in Cuba, the grind towards the Athens Olympics starts.
And if everything keeps going the way it has, superstars Hartley and Despatie could be congratulating each other on Olympic podiums.
une page mise en ligne le 29 mars 2004 par SVP
