It was a winding route for Canada’s Mia Vallée to land on the podium.
The Beaconsfield, Que., diver earned bronze in the women’s one-metre springboard final at the world aquatics championships on Wednesday in Budapest, Hungary.
Vallée only snuck into medal round, placing ninth in the morning’s preliminary heat to qualify for the 12-woman final with less than a four-point gap ahead of the 13th-place finisher.
After four dives, eventual champion Li Yajie of China took control, moving 10 points ahead of the Canadian for the lead.
And in the fifth and final dive, American Sarah Bacon conjured just enough to leap past Vallée by five one-hundredths of a point and earn silver.
Vallée completed the final to take bronze with 276.60 points, behind Bacon’s 276.65 points and Li’s runaway total of 300.85 points.
It’s the first podium appearance of the 21-year-old Vallée’s career at worlds. She’s also earned five medals on the Grand Prix circuit, but has never competed at the Olympics.
Margo Erlam, of Calgary, placed ninth with 246.10 points.
Wednesday’s coverage of the world championships concludes with the women’s three-metre springboard synchro final at 1 p.m ET.
Action continues on Thursday at with the men’s and women’s 25-kilometre open water swim at 3 a.m. ET, followed by water polo semifinals beginning at 10 a.m. ET and two more diving finals at 11 a.m. ET and 1 p.m. ET.
Aquatics worlds coverage continues every day through Sunday. Click on the link below for a full schedule of events.
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