Despatie Gives the Fans a Reason to Celebrate

Alexandre Despatie gave Canada another gold medal to celebrate at the World Swimming Championships.

Despatie won the three-meter springboard title Tuesday night in front of his flag-waving hometown fans.

The Montreal resident was cheered loudly, especially for earning two perfect marks of 10 on his third dive.

Despatie finished first with 813.60 points against a stellar field that included defending world champion Alexander Dubroskok of Russia and 2003 silver medalist Peng Bo of China.

American Troy Dumais earned the silver with 752.76 points. He Chong of China took the bronze with 730.77.

Despatie led after the preliminaries and semifinals, just as teammate Blythe Hartley had in winning the one-meter title Monday for Canada’s first gold medal.

A grinning Hartley shared a bearhug with Despatie, who blew kisses to the crowd.

The Chinese narrowly avoided being shut out for the first time in Montreal. Dubroskok badly missed his fifth dive, dropping him from third to fifth and allowing He back into medal contention.

The Chinese won two golds Sunday in synchronized diving, and a silver in women’s one-meter Monday.

It was Dumais’ second medal of the meet, having shared a bronze in three-meter synchronized with his brother Justin, who didn’t make the individual springboard final.

Canada and China were tied atop the medals standings with two golds each.

The Chinese also have a silver. Canada has a bronze. The United States has three silvers and a bronze.

Last summer, Peng Bo held off Despatie to win the three-meter title at the Athens Games. But Peng finished fourth Tuesday. Dubroskok ended up fifth.

Despatie was the 2003 world champion on the 10-meter platform, but a back injury kept him from training and he won’t defend that title this week.

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In women’s water polo preliminaries, the United States was upset, 9-8, by Hungary.

Brenda Villa scored twice for the defending world champion Americans, who tied Spain, 6-6, in their opening match.

They must beat China on Thursday to keep alive their hopes of advancing.

Aniko Pelle had three goals for Hungary, which is 2-0 in pool play.

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Michael Phelps announced that he would compete in eight events at the world championships, just as he did in the 2004 Summer Olympics, but his workload won’t be the same.

He has replaced two of his world-record events, the 200-meter butterfly and 400 individual medley, with the 100-meter and 400 freestyles.