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Victoria divers set for Commonwealth Games

As the final winter echoes from Pyeongchang fade to history, Island athletes turn their attention to the beat of summer, beginning next month at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, through to the big prizes at Tokyo 2020.

As the final winter echoes from Pyeongchang fade to history, Island athletes turn their attention to the beat of summer, beginning next month at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, through to the big prizes at Tokyo 2020.

The last time Celina Toth was on the boards in Gold Coast, she won silver in the fall at the FINA Grand Prix diving meet. The last time she was on the boards at a multi-sport event, Toth won two medals last summer in the 2017 World University Games.

The Victoria Boardworks diver, and University of Victoria psychology major, hopes it is a harbinger and that it all comes together next month on the Gold Coast.

Toth and Boardworks club-mate Bryden Hattie were the latest performers named this week to what will be the Island’s 40-plus athlete contribution to Canada’s team for the Commonwealth Games in sports as disparate as rugby sevens to lawn bowling.

Toth will compete in the women’s 10-metre and Hattie in men’s 10-metre synchro diving. That’s quite a jump to the senior national team level for Grade 11 Claremont Secondary student Hattie, who last year came away with three silver medals from the 2017 Canada Summer Games and won silver in the 16- to 18-year-old category at the Pan American Junior Championships held in the fall at his home pool, Saanich Commonwealth Place.

“It’s exciting because it’s the Commonwealth Games and not a junior event, and it will be a completely different experience against top senior divers,” Hattie said. “But I always take in the moment, wherever that moment is.

“There hasn’t been much of a break, and [there has been] a lot of hard work, but it’s paying off.”

Toth and Hattie will be joined on the Gold Coast by Boardworks coach Tommy McLeod, who will be one of the Canadian team coaches at the Games.

“That will add to the experience because Tommy is not just a coach, but he is a friend to us,” Hattie said.

In a blow to the Canadian team, sprint star Andre De Grasse has withdrawn from Gold Coast 2018, citing fitness.

The 2016 Rio Olympic triple medallist also missed the 2017 world track and field championships due to a hamstring injury.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games run from April 4 to 15.

cdheensaw@timescolonist.com