With two-time Olympian Riley McCormick on the back end of his career, Celina Toth is emerging as the Next One for the Victoria Boardworks Diving Club.
Toth, a University of Victoria psychology major, and Carol-Ann Ware from Concordia University in Montreal won sa国际传媒鈥檚 first medal of the 2015 World University Games on Monday in Gwangju, South Korea, with gold in the women鈥檚 10-metre synchronized event.
According to a Canadian team statement, the diving duo were thrown together at the Games and had not even practised beforehand.
鈥淚 was very nervous at the beginning,鈥� Toth said in a statement.
鈥淥ur coaches kept telling us we had a chance. We took it a dive at a time and our confidence grew. It鈥檚 very exciting. We鈥檙e very happy to win it for our country.鈥�
What made the result even more impressive is that Toth has fought her way back after suffering a Stage 2 tear in her elbow last year.
Meanwhile, six-foot-10 post player and sa国际传媒 West MVP Chris McLaughlin from the University of Victoria Vikes steamrollered through the interior lanes to score 21 points as sa国际传媒 moved to 3-0 in men鈥檚 basketball with a 66-63 victory over Montenegro in men鈥檚 basketball. McLaughlin鈥檚 presence in the centre was integral in getting UVic to the CIS national Final Four in both 2014 and 2015 to close out his Vikes career.
The Canadian men鈥檚 hoops team is following a record of success in these Games, having won silver in 2011 at Shenzhen, China, and finishing fourth in 2013 at Kazan, Russia. And in almost a still-surreal golden basketball result from the 1983 Edmonton Games, UVic Vikes greats Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski, Kelly Dukeshire and Greg Wiltjer helped lead sa国际传媒 to a memorable shocker of a victory over a U.S. team that included Charles Barkley, Karl Malone and Johnny Dawkins.
UVic Vikes athletes in the 2015 University Games include McLaughlin and Toth, Jon McKay and Stephanie Horner in swimming, Brynn Tomie in golf, Tom Watson and Beth McConnell in rowing and Brendon Restall, Adam Paul-Morris and Karl Robertson in track and field. UBC鈥檚 Keegan Zanatta from Victoria is competing in swimming and UBC鈥檚 Joel Regehr of Courtenay in volleyball for the Canadian men鈥檚 team, which is off to a 0-3 start.
UVic track standouts Rachel Francois and Thomas Riva turned down automatic selection to the University Games to concentrate on making the Canadian senior teams for the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto and 2015 world track and field championships in Beijing.
