Canadian divers Jennifer Abel and Émilie Heymans advanced out of the Olympic three-metre springboard semi-final on Saturday, moving beyond Heymans' initial struggles.

Canada's most-decorated diver suffered a disaster in the second round of the competition and fell into last place.

Performing a forward 3.5 somersault in the tuck position, she went into her hurdle a little too close to the end of the board. Her toes hung in space as she prepared to launch herself into the air, and she seemed to panic. Exiting her  somersault too early and severely under-rotating her dive, she splashed through the surface of the water.

Heymans, 30, received scores of just 5.5 out of 10 for her efforts and plummeted into 18th place in the standings. Three dives from the end of the competition, she was in real danger of failing to advance. Only the top-12 divers from the semi-final round qualify for the medal round, where scores are reset and divers start from zero.

But she soon clawed her way back up through the ranks. Drawing upon decades of diving experience, she executed her most challenging dive -- the reverse 2.5 somersault -- to near-perfection and marks of 8.5, 8.5 and 8.0. Her total score of 75.00 was the third-highest of the round and her highest of the competition.

With the result, Heymans climbed into 13th overall.

The Laval, Que., veteran went on to put up straight-eights through the fourth and fifth rounds of the competition, and finished with a total of 331.35 points. The score was good enough to send Heymans into Saturday's medal event -- her eighth-straight Olympic final -- in eighth place.

Abel also advanced on Saturday, qualifying for her first individual final as the fourth seed in the competition.

The 20-year-old racked up consistent scores of 7.5 and 8.0 through her first four dives before picking up straight 8.5s for her last and best dive, the forward 2.5 somersault with one twist.

Abel and Heymans will face extremely tough competition in their quest for a second Olympic medal of the Games. The divers picked up bronze together in last Sunday's synchro springboard competition, but in the individual final there could be just one podium place up for grabs.