Canada's Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel celebrate their bronze medals following the women's synchronized 3-metre springboard final at the Aquatic Centre in the Olympic Village at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on Sunday, July 29, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
July 29, 2012 - 12:21 PM
LONDON - Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel have given Canada its first medal of the London Games.
The diving pair claimed bronze in the women's three-metre synchronized event Sunday.
The podium is familiar ground to Heymans. The 30-year-old native of St. Lambert, Que., is the first female diver in history to win a medal in four straight Olympic Games.
Abel won her first medal after making her Olympic debut at Beijing four years ago. The 20-year-old from Laval, Que., also won a silver with Heymans in the event at last year's world championships.
"It's awesome," said Heymans. "I'm really happy that I was able to win my fourth medal with Jennifer. We worked really hard over the last two years."
World champions Minxia Wu and He Zi of China led from start to finish to take the gold with an overall score of 346.20.
Americans Kelci Bryant and Abigail Johnston captured silver with 321.90 while Heymans and Abel recorded 316.80 points.
The pair's fifth dive kept them on the podium after Italy fumbled its fourth dive.
It took Canada just two days of full competition to earn a medal, an early step toward the team's goal of a top-12 finish overall.
The result will be a momentum boost for other Canadian athletes — it took the team eight days of competition in 2008 to step onto the podium.
Elsewhere at the Olympics:
— Clara Hughes finished 32nd after spending much of the women's road race in front of the peloton. Hughes of Glen Sutton, Que., was looking for her seventh Olympic medal.
Joelle Numainville of Laval, Que., was 12th after losing control trying to avoid another fallen rider with 10 kilometres remaining. Denise Ramsden of Yellowknife meanwhile finished 27th.
— Brittany MacLean of Toronto qualified for the women's 400-metre freestyle after swimming to the sixth-fastest time in her heat. Savannah King, also of Toronto, finished 18th and did not move on.
— Julia Wilkinson of Stratford, Ont., and Sinead Russell of Burlington, Ont., each advanced to the women's 100 backstroke semifinal.
— Calgary's Jillian Tyler and Tera Van Beilen of Oakville, Ont., edged into the women's 100 breaststroke semifinal.
— Charles Francis of Cowansville, Que., qualified for the men's 100 backstroke.
— Vancouver's Blake Worsley was 17th in qualifying for the men's 200 freestyle, just missing out on a semifinal spot.
— The women's eight rowing team easily won its heat to advance directly to Thursday's final and a showdown against rival United States.
— Michael Braithwaite of Duncan, B.C., and Kevin Kowalyk of Winnipeg advanced to the men's rowing double sculls semifinals on Tuesday with a third-place finish in a repechage.
— Victoria's Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee finished fifth in lightweight women's double sculls to move to Tuesday's repechage.
— Douglas Vandor of Dewittville, Que., and Morgan Jarvis of Clearwater Bay, Ont., were third in lightweight men's double sculls and will next compete in a repechage Tuesday.
— Toronto's Sasha Mehmedovic won his opening match before losing to Japan's Masashi Ebinuma, the world champion–in-title, in men's under-66 kilogram judo.
— Toronto natives Michele Li and Alex Bruce were defeated by South Korea's Kyung Eun Jung and Ha Na Kim in women's doubles badminton group play.
— Dorothy Ludwig of Langely, B.C., finished 34th in qualifying to miss out on the women's 10-metre air pistol final.
— Montreal's Philippe Beaudry lost in the round of 32 to Dmitri Lapkes of Belarus in fencing's men's individual sabre.
— Ottawa's Mo Zhang lost in the second round of women's singles table tennis to Austria's Qiangbing Li.
— Toronto's Greg Douglas finished 16th in qualifying in the men's one person dinghy heavyweight finn sailing race.
— Richard Clarke of Salt Spring Island, B.C., and Tyler Bjorn of Beaconsfield, Que., finished 16th out of 16 boats in their men's keelboat star sailing qualification heat.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012