Alexandre Despatie claimed Canada's second diving gold of the 11th World Swimming Championships on Tuesday, the hometown hero thrilling a fiercely partisan crowd in the men's 3m springboard. American Troy Dumais was second, while China's vaunted divers could do no better than bronze.
That went to He Chong, while his compatriot Peng Bo was relegated to fourth less than a year after claiming the Olympic 3m gold ahead of Despatie in Athens.
With only one medal event on the schedule Tuesday, the day belonged to Despatie.
The diver from Laval, Quebec, has grown up in front of his fans, rocketting to stardom when he won the 10m platform title at the age of 13 at the 1998 Commonwealth Games.
His hopes of giving his home fans a gold to cheer appeared to take a hit when he announced earlier this year that a back injury would prevent him from defending the 10m platform world title he won in Barcelona two years ago.
But in the end he delivered a sensational springboard show, leading wire-to-wire and finishing with a total of 813.60 points.
It was the highest 3m springboard points total in the history of the world championships, and 60.84 points better than Dumais's silver-winning total of 752.76.
After he received a sprinking of perfect 10s in the semi-finals, the highlight of Despatie's final six dives was the third, a reverse three-and-a-half somersault that earned three 10s and a total score of 100.80.
China's He, who earned a synchronised springboard gold on Sunday, captured the bronze with 730.77 points.
But even that medal came with a little help from Russian Alexander Dobroskok.
Dubroskok, who won the world title in 2003 with the previous highest points total of 788.37, was in the bronze medal position through four rounds of the final, but a poor fifth dive saw him plummet down the standings and open the door for He.
The Chinese, buoyed by their stunning haul of six of eight diving gold medals on offer in Athens, came into the World Championships hoping to start their march toward the 2008 Beijing Games with a similarly dominant performance.
Hartley was among the first to congratulate Despatie on the deck of the diving pool at the Ile Sainte-Helene aquatic center.
Diving: Men's 3m springboard (Final)
1. Alexandre Despatie (CAN) 813.60pts - gold medal
2. Troy Dumais (USA) 752.76 - silver medal
3. He Chong (CHN) 730.77 - bronze medal
4. Peng Bo (CHN) 721.56, 5. Alexander Dobroskok (RUS) 705.39, 6. Jorge Garcia Betancourt (CUB) 681.93, 7. Cesar Castro (BRA) 681.69, 8. Andreas Wels (GER) 669.00, 9. Joona Puhakka (FIN) 658.83, 10. Nicola Marconi (ITA) 652.56, 11. Arturo Miranda (CAN) 628.77, 12. Tobias Schellenberg (GER) 610.56
QUALIFIERS FOR FINAL:
1. Alexandre Despatie (CAN) 765.03, 2. Alexander Dubroskok (RUS) 706.17, 3. Troy Dumais (USA) 704.91, 4. Andreas Wels (GER) 669.69, 5. He Chong (CHN) 668.49, 6. Miranda Arturo (CAN) 663.12, 7. Nicola Marconi (ITA) 658.71, 8. Cesar Castro (BRA) 657.06, 9. Peng Bo (CHN) 655.74, 10. Joona Puhakka (FIN) 634.89, 11. Tobias Schellenberg (GER) 634.05, 12. Jorge Garcia Betancourt (CUB) 633.93
Qualifiers for semi-finals:
1. Alexandre Despatie (CAN) 500.85pts, 2. Alexander Dubroskok (RUS) 465.00, 3. Troy Dumais (USA) 454.26, 4. Nicola Marconi (ITA) 433.71, 5. Arturo Mirando (CAN) 432.21, 6. Cesar Castro (BRA) 430.35, 7. Andreas Wels (GER) 426.39, 8. Peng Bo 425.91, 9. He Chong 422.01, 10. Tobias Schellenberg (GER) 410.43, 11. Ramon Fumado (VEN) 404.13, 12. Joona Puhakka (FIN) 403.23, 13. Jorge Garcia Betancourt (CUB) 403.08, 14. Javier Illana (ESP) 401.55, 15. Rommel Pacheco (MEX) 394.32, 16. Luis Villarroel (VEN) 389.22, 17. Juan Guillermo Uran (COL) 382.08, 18. Massimiliano Mazzucchi (ITA) 381.36
Water Polo: Women's preliminaries (Group A):
Italy 13 Cuba 6
(Group B):Hungary 9 USA 8
Spain 15 China 3
(Group C):
New Zealand 9 Uzbekistan 4
Russia 4 Greece 4
(Group D):
Netherlands 6 Germany 7.
MONTREAL: Medals table at the 11th World Swimming Championships after Tuesday's events:

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                Gold     Silver     Bronze     Total
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China             2        1          1            4
Canada            2        0          1            3
Germany           1        1          1            3
Russia            1        0          0            1
United States     0        3          1            4
Australia         0        1          0            1
Italy             0        0          1            1
Netherlands       0        0          1            1
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