THE CANADIAN PRESS
BEIJING — Blythe Hartley of North Vancouver, B.C., was among the leaders while 16-year-old Jennifer Abel of Montreal also advanced Friday in qualifying for the Olympic springboard diving semifinals.
The top 18 women from a field of 30 moved on to Saturday’s semis.
Defending Olympic and current world champion Guo Jingjing of China was first with 373.90 points, followed by Russian Julia Pakhalina with 358.15 and Hartley in third at 350.60.
Abel recovered from a botched third dive to finish 10th in her Olympic debut with 300.75 points.
Hartley is ranked No. 4 in the world. She was the leader after the first and second round of dives.
"I was incredibly nervous the entire morning leading up to the competition and I didn’t really know why," Hartley said. "What happened today is good, but I’m going to leave it behind me and know that tomorrow we all start at zero."
Each athlete performed five dives and the 24-year-old Hartley was second-last in the order.
"Prelims is typically challenging because it’s so long and you’re spending a lot of time sitting and waiting," she said. "Sometimes you can get fatigued or tight or lose your momentum.
"I definitely felt a little bit of that because I was sharper at the beginning than towards the end, but the fact I could maintain my consistency was a positive thing for me."
The top 12 from the semifinal move onto Sunday’s final when the medals will be awarded. The divers don’t carry over scores, but start from zero points in each phase of the competition.
Guo, meanwhile, kept China on its path toward a sweep of all eight diving gold medals at the Olympics.
Guo already successfully defended her synchronized springboard title with partner Wu Minxia last weekend to win China’s first diving gold on home turf.
Now, Guo is in position to claim her second consecutive Olympic three-metre individual title.
