Announcement for the FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2021

()

In just a few days, the main competition of the year for juniors in diving will begin. This December 2 to 9, Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, will bring together the top junior divers of the world for the FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2021.

FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2021
FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2021

For the fourth time in the last five years, the Sports Centre LIKO will host a top international sports event. However, unlike in 2018 where about 300 athletes from more than 50 countries took part in the same competition, this edition will welcome more than 100 athletes from 27 countries around the world.

Why now?

It is no secret that the global coronavirus pandemic, which began at the end of 2019, severely slowed down the sporting world, even affecting the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Initially scheduled for 2020, this championship, like plenty of other international sports events, was postponed. 

Remembering the WJDC2018

The FINA World Junior Diving Championships in 2018 was a real festival of sports as all continents of the world were represented. As many as 13 countries also replenished their medal piggy banks!

FINA Medal standings diving
Final medal standings of the World Junior Diving Championships 2018/ Instagram

The competition was attended by a dozen celebrities and distinguished guests, including the Vice President of the NOC of Ukraine, the President of the Diving Federation of Ukraine, Igor Lysov, the then President of FINA Julio Maglione, the mayor of Kyiv, and the legendary boxer Vladimir Klitschko.

In the said competition, I distinctly remember the performance of the Colombian diver, Daniel Restrepo Garcia, who beat two representatives of China in the Boys Age Group A 3-meter springboard individual event.

Daniel Restrepo Garcia
Daniel Restrepo Garcia, who beat two representatives of China in the Boys Age Group A 3-meter springboard individual event. Igor Lysov on the left and Julio Maglione on the right/ Instagram

It is also worth noting the gold medal won by the British team in the mixed team event, and the gold medal performance of the Canadians in the Boys A&B 3-meter synchronized springboard event.

FINA Team Event
WJDC2018 Team Event medalists/ Instagram

What can we expect from the 2021 edition?

Initially, the number of countries wishing to participate in this edition was already noticeably smaller than in 2018 for obvious reasons. After some time, however, a number of other countries further withdrew their application citing the alarming COVID-19 situation in Ukraine and other accompanying circumstances.

A Review of the LEN European Aquatics Championships 2021 in Budapest

On the other hand, the FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2021 still promises to be an exciting event in this pandemic era as most of the other competitions in the world are either canceled or postponed. Therefore, although not all countries will gather, we will still have a majority of teams who we expect to put on a show.

Where do we get updates?

Anyone can follow the World Junior Diving Championships 2021 on our website and YouTube channel, as well as on the website, Instagram, and YouTube channel, dedicated to these events directly.

Diving Ukraine
Diving Ukraine – Youtube

What will Team Ukraine have?

The youth national team of Ukraine will be represented by seven athletes participating in 14 out of the 17 possible events. Two athletes come from Kyiv – the seniors European champion Ksenia Bailo and juniors European champion Anna Arnautova. Two more athletes hail from the Luhansk region – Danila Avanesov and Vladislav Klimko. The other two athletes are residents of Mykolaiv – Bogdan Chizhovsky and Danilo Konovalov. The top athlete and the legendary Ukrainian diver, Oleksii Sereda, the youngest ever seniors European Champion, will also perform at the World Junior Diving Championships 2021.

FINA Divng
Diving pool to host WJDC2021 in Kyiv

We asked the head coach of the Ukrainian national diving team Tamara Tokmachova about the plans for these competitions:

“It is a pity that the two-time medalist of the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, who is also a two-time senior’s European champion, Sofia Lyskun is not taking part since she was injured before the Olympic Games in Tokyo and is now undergoing rehabilitation.

Sofia Lyskun
LYSKUN SOFIIA UKR Ukraina Women – Platform – Preliminary Kyiv, Ukraine 06/08/2019
Len European Diving Championships 2019
Sport Arena Liko Kyiv, Ukraine
Photo © Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

We are also very sorry that we did not allow athletes born in 2007 to compete, so we have Kirill Bolyukh, who could compete for medals both on the platform and on the springboard. At the upcoming junior world championship, we look forward to the successful performance of our junior team leaders, who are the leaders of the main Ukrainian national diving team.”

Sports4world will cover events from the juniors championship in Kyiv. Stay tuned for the latest news in diving.

Edited by Aldo Tong

Also about diving: A Look Back at the UODC 2021

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating / 5. Vote count:

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

Tokmachov Iaroslav
Founder & CEO of sports4world.com

Related articles

Comments

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share article

Latest articles

Newsletter

Subscribe to stay updated.