Canadian Olympic Foundation
Nanjing 2014: Diver Philippe Gagné and archer Eric Peters win bronze
Canada won two more Youth Olympic medals over the weekend in Nanjing, China.
Diver Philippe Gagné had a late surge in the men’s 3m springboard final to win the bronze medal on Sunday. Sitting out of the medals with two of his five dives remaining, the Montreal teenager was superb at a higher degree of difficulty to finish on the podium.
“My first three dives are the easiest but they were the ones I missed. With the higher degree of difficulty it’s a win or break situation, if you get it you have a lot of points if you don’t you lose a lot of points. I was really stressed for those two dives but it worked out so I’m really happy,” said Gagné.
China’s Yang Hao won the competition with 613.80 points, Mexico’s silver medallist Rodrigo Diego Lopez had 593.65 and Gagné scored 566.75.
It is the second competition in China this summer for the 16 year-old, who trains with diving club CAMO. He accompanied the senior Canadian team to Shanghai in July for the Diving World Cup, the sport’s biggest stage in 2014.
“It (Shanghai) helped a lot for the stress level there were a lot of people in the stands, there was TV, I think that prepared me for here. It was the same thing,” commented Gagné. “I’ve very, very happy, I’m really proud of myself.”
Canada’s second medal was also Sunday. Ottawa’s Eric Peters won bronze in international mixed team archery, an event unique to the Youth Olympic Games. Peters teamed up with Finland’s Mirjam Tuokkola to beat a pair from Guatemala and Belgium in the bronze medal match.
“I was coming into the team event fairly disappointed with how I did as an individual. It was good fun, it was something really different, something great for this event,” said Peters.
Peters lost in the round of 16 of his individual event, the men’s recurve.
Canada now has five total medals, one silver and four bronze. The Youth Olympic Games continue until Thursday, August 28th.
