Despatie Wins 2nd Gold Medal

The only thing missing at the coronation of Alexandre Despatie as the king of diving was a crown.

The Canadian thoroughly dominated his rivals for the second time at the World Swimming Championships, winning the one-meter springboard Thursday night.

“I was just ready for this moment,” he said.

Virginie Dedieu of France repeated her world championship in solo synchronized swimming, the only other medal event Thursday.

Canada took over the top spot in the medal standings with three golds. China, Russia and the United States were tied with two each. The Chinese have a leading seven medals overall.

Despatie also earned gold in the three-meter springboard Tuesday, delighting fans in his hometown who created a heavily partisan atmosphere at the pool on Ile Saint-Helene.

“I never imagined I would end up with two gold medals,” he said. “After the three-meter, I thought I had done my job and one-meter was a bonus.”

Despatie led all the way in beating two former world champions from China and giving his country its third diving gold medal.

He won with 489.69 points.

Defending champion Xu Xiang earned the silver with 445.68. Wang Feng, the 2001 world champion, took bronze with 445.56.

“Alex is the biggest enemy for Chinese diving,” Xu said jokingly through an interpreter.

Joona Puhakka of Finland, who finished third two years ago, was fourth. Americans Jevon Tarantino and Chris Colwill were fifth and sixth, respectively.

His rivals had good things to say about Despatie.

“You see the guy do a good dive and you want to come back and do another good dive,” said Tarantino, competing in his first worlds.

“It’s just really fun to dive against him,” Colwill said. “He’s a great competitor.”

Despatie stayed consistent throughout the six-dive final. He earned a perfect mark of 10.0 for his fifth dive, a reverse 1 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists.

He received marks ranging from 8.5 to 9.0 for his last dive, a forward 2 1/2 somersault with one twist.

No need to check the scoreboard. He won by 44 points.

He similarly trounced the competition in three-meter, winning by more than 60 points.

After his latest triumph, Despatie climbed out of the pool, bowed, blew kisses and pumped his right arm as teenage girls infatuated with the stubble-faced diver screamed.

“The atmosphere was unreal,” he said. “This crowd has made this experience unforgettable. These guys are definitely part of my results, and I can only thank them for that.”

Winning was sweet relief to Despatie. As the public face of the championships, which were stripped from the city in January, he helped rally financial and fan support for keeping the event in Montreal.

“I had a lot of people saying I had to win to save the games, which was very hard to take,” he said. “The mayor of Montreal told me twice he was very proud of me.”