Bronze bonanza for Canada

LONDON—The diving team of Roseline Filion and Meaghan Benfeito captured Canada’s second medal at the London Olympics.
Filion, of Laval, Que., and Montreal’s Benfeito won bronze today in the women’s 10-metre synchronized event.

China continued to dominate the competition, with Chen Ruolin and Wang Hao winning the gold.
Paola Espinosa Sanchez and Alejandra Orozco Loza of Mexico took the silver.
The medal comes two days after Emilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel gave Canada its first medal of the Games with a third-place finish in the women’s three-metre synchro.
Two more Canadian athletes then added to today’s bronze bonanza.
Antoine Valois-Fortier, a 22-year-old from Quebec City, defeated American Travis Stevens 1-0 in the men’s 81-kg judo event to win bronze.
It’s Canada’s first judo medal since Nicholas Gill won silver in 2000.
Valois-Fortier was 4-1 in his early matches.
He defeated Elnur Mammadli of Azerbaijan, Euan Burton of Britain, Srdjan Mrvaljevic of Montenegro, lost to Russia’s Ivan Nifontov, and then beat Emmanuel Lucenti of Argentina in the repechage to reach the bronze-medal match.
Then weightlifter Christine Girard captured bronze in the women’s 63-kg class.
Girard, who grew up in Rouyn-Noranda, Que. and lives in White Rock, B.C., completed the hat trick an hour later.
She finished third with a total weight of 236 kg.
Maiya Maneza of Kazakhstan won gold while Svetlana Tsarukaeva of Russia captured silver.
On the water, meanwhile, three sets of Canadian rowers were in action this morning but only one made the semi-final round.
Victoria’s Lindsay Jennerich and Patricia Obee rebounded from a poor heat to finish second in their lightweight women’s double sculls repechage and advance to Thursday’s semis.
Jennerich and Obee (seven minutes, 15.37 seconds) were second to the U.S. (7:13.82) in their repechage.
Cuba also moved on with a third-place finish.
“Obviously, we wanted to go out and win the rep, but what we have to take home with us is recognizing that as we are moving through the regatta, we are improving immensely,” said Jennerich.
“We just have to take that and gain confidence in that so that we can put it to use in the semi, which is going to be an extremely tough race,” she warned.
“There’s probably eight crews in this event that can be on that podium and probably six that can win it.
“It’s not like there is an obvious top three—we’ll have to race that semi like it’s a final,” Jennerich stressed.