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PARIS, France — Jamaican Yona Knight-Wisdom performed well in the men’s 3-meter springboard diving qualifying round on Jamaica’s Independence Day on Tuesday, making his third Olympic appearance.
He was among the top 18 players with a score of 382.90 and advanced to the semifinals.
Speaking about the significance of competing on such a special day, Knight-Wisden replied: “Absolutely, yes,” when asked if celebrating Jamaica’s Independence Day inspired him to play his best.
A little energy
“I’ve played a few games on Independence Day, so I’ve had this feeling before, but it does give me some energy. My family and friends were in the crowd waving the Jamaican flag, which gave me energy, and President Samuda (Christopher) was here, which gave me energy, so yeah, I feel good to go again tomorrow.”
Knight-Wisdom, who also captains the Jamaican men’s team, landed his best move on his fourth dive, a forward two-and-a-half somersault from a pike position, earning 73.10 points. He acknowledged the importance of managing expectations and focusing on improving in the rounds. “The heats are all about surviving and doing enough to get through. I was really happy with my first four dives, they were exactly what I wanted them to be, there’s definitely some room for improvement,” he noted.
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Despite a slight drop in performance on his fifth dive, Knight-Wisden remained optimistic. “My fifth dive dropped a little, but that’s normal in the preliminaries. A lot of divers made mistakes, but luckily I kept them to a minimum and that was enough to get me into the semifinals,” he explained. “So I’ll try to do another dive tomorrow if I can and try to improve on all levels.”
Exactly the same dive
Looking ahead to the semi-final, the 29-year-old is confident and has made it clear that he will keep his composure. “There is definitely a little space and the points will be very small in the end. These points are not decided by me, but by the referee, so I have to do my best and repeat what I can honestly, remember the feeling of the match today and use that feeling tomorrow,” he said.
“I’m really happy with the way I went into the competition, so I’m going to do the exact same dive, nothing changes, I’m just going to do it again.”
Knight-Wisden will return to the pool at the Olympic Aquatic Center on Wednesday morning for the semifinals.
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