"We made some costly mistakes"

The Quebecers had to settle for fifth place, with 409.29 points, seven short of third place and a bronze medal. The duo had to rack up a minimum score of 8.5 in their last dive to take the bronze.

"We're disappointed. We know we could have done better, but with the injury that kept me out of competition, we managed well where we finished," Despatie pointed out in a telephone interview with Courrier Laval. "But we were prepared and ready to go for this event," he added.

Despatie and Miranda were competing in their first event since February 2008, as Alexandre was hampered by a foot injury. "But I don't want to blame the injury for our performance," he clarified.

The Laval-sur-le-Lac diver says he felt the pressure because this was the first real chance for Canada to win any medal. "We're not here to carry the country on our backs. Everyone here wants to win a medal, and so do we. The people back home have to keep supporting us. I will continue to work as hard as I can."

The two were in third place after the third of six dives. "It was really tight. We were six points away from a medal. The door was open, but we made some little mistakes in our fourth dive."

The Russian pair of Dmitry Sautin and Yuri Kunakov won silver with 421.98 points. Illya Kvasha and Oleksiy Prygorov of the Ukraine took the last of the medals (bronze) with 415.05 points.