Divers Secure Spots in Rio Olympics at Test Event
By Georgia Grimond, Senior Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The FINA Diving World Cup and Rio 2016 warm-up event wrapped up yesterday, Wednesday February 24th, after six days of competition in Barra da Tijuca. The remaining 88 spaces for the 2016 Olympics were filled. Among others, Brazil won a further two places and Jamaican diver Yona Knight-Wisdom ensured the island will have its first ever male Olympic diver.
Knight-Wisdom, who was born in the UK to Jamaican and Barbadian parents, reached the semi-finals of the 3m individual springboard event earning him a spot at the Rio 2016 Olympics, a first for Jamaica, before he went on to come second overall.
“I’ll be the first ever male diver from Jamaica at the Olympics, there was a female diver in 1972,” Knight-Wisdom told Rio 2016. “As my father is Jamaican and my mother is Barbadian, my option was to choose between one of those two. After making sure that I wouldn’t upset either side of the family, I chose Jamaica and I’ve been representing the country since 2012.”
The competition was held at the Maria Lenk Aquatics center which was originally built for the 2007 Pan-American Games. The venue has been updated to be used as an Olympic venue but remains open-air. Without a roof competitors are at the mercy of the weather. This week temperatures have been high and some events have been halted due to thunderstorms.
British diving heartthrob Tom Daley and his partner Dan Goodfellow were delayed by forty minutes by storms but finished up third, securing a place in August’s competition. Daley, who has a big social media and You Tube following, was greeted by loud cheers at the event. Ren Qian from China wowed the audiences too, scoring a perfect ten in her last dive in the women’s individual platform event and taking home gold.
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