Diving: Edmonton diver Eric Sehn seventh on one-metre at world aquatic championships

ROME – Eric Sehn of Edmonton finished seventh in the men’s one-metre final on Friday as the diving competition got underway at the world aquatic championships.

Double Olympic medallist Kai Qin led China to a 1-2 finish earning 449.00. Xinhua Zhang was second at 445.90 points. Matthew Mitcham of Australia took the bronze at 440.20.

Sehn, 24, totalled 391.80 in his worlds debut. He moved as high as fourth place after the third round but subpar marks on his fourth dive, a backward two and half, knocked him down to eighth place. He was able to regain a spot finishing the event with two solid dives averaging 8.0’s on his reverse and twisting dives.

“I wanted to make the final and getting seventh place is pretty good for a first world championship,” said Sehn, also scheduled to compete on 10-metre next week. “I hit a couple of dives really well and that helped me out. My backward dive is one that is inconsistent for me. I just rushed it too much this time.”

The preliminaries were also held on women’s 10-metre tower. Olympic champion Ruolin Chen of China holds the lead at 388.65, Melissa Wu of Australia stands second at 359.80 and Kang Li of China is third at 342.40.

Roseline Filion of Laval, Que., stands sixth at 322.35 and Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal took 16th spot. Both Canadians advanced to the semifinal on Saturday.

Filion was in 11th spot heading into the last round but registered 76.50 points for her twisting dive, the second best score of the day for that dive, to shoot up the standings.

“The preliminaries are the toughest part of the competition because we wait so long between dives,” said Filion, who was among a field of 31 divers and waited 45 minutes between her dives. “But I was able to keep my energy level up for the entire competition and put myself in a good position heading into the semifinals.”

Competition continues Saturday with the women’s semis and final on tower and the prelims and final on men’s three-meter synchro featuring Alexandre Despatie of Laval and Reuben Ross of Regina.