Yona Knight-Wisdom advances to semifinal of Olympic men's 3m springboard

Three-time Olympic diver Yona Knight-Wisdom kicked off Jamaica's 62nd independence anniversary celebrations as he began his final Olympic competition, qualifying for the semi-final of the men's three-metre springboard at the Centre Aquatique today.

Knight-Wisdom finished 14th place with a total of 382.90 points to lock in his place in his third straight  semi-final which is tomorrow at 3:00 a.m. Jamaica time.

He said the feeling of competing on Independence Day gave him extra fuel to deliver, in addition to having the support of well-wishers in the stands. 

"I have had a few competitions on Independence Day. It is a feeling that I have experienced before, but it gave me a bit of energy. I have family and friends in the crowd with the Jamaican flag, so that gave me energy," Knight-Wisdom said.

Knight-Wisdom, 29, was consistent in his first four dives, with his highest score coming in his fourth dive with 73.10 points. While the fifth attempt was his lowest, he said that surviving is key in situations like this.

"The preliminaries are all about surviving, doing enough to get through. I am really happy with my first four dives. They were exactly where I needed them. There is definitely room for improvement. My fifth dive it dropped a little bit but that happens in the preliminaries,"  Knight Wisdom said. There were a lot of divers that made mistakes but fortunately I minimised the mistakes that I made and that was enough to get me through to the semi-finals," he said. 

Capturing the energy from today will be key for Knight-Wisdom as he hopes that his last Olympic Games will translate to his first every Olympic final

"It comes down to very small points, but I don't decide those points it's the judges. So I have got to try and do my best and honestly try and repeat as much as I can. Remember the feeling of competing today and use that for my benefit tomorrow so I can control the energy, control the emotions and just approach my dives in the best way possible," Knight-Wisdom said.

"You can't replicate the feeling of an Olympic preliminary or any kind of event in training. To feel that today and have the chance to go again tomorrow, I will definitely learn from that ."

- Daniel Wheeler

Follow The Gleaner on X and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.