A year of outstanding performances by European male divers culminated in a significant showing at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
Ukraine’s Oleksii Sereda, still only 19, earned the first individual world medal of his developing career as he took silver in a dramatic 10m platform final won with a final flourish by Australia’s Cassiel Rousseau.
Sereda thus added to the 10m mixed synchro and 10m synchro silvers he had earned at the respective 2022 and 2023 World Championships.
Two months earlier at the European Aquatics Diving Championships in Antalya Sereda had earned three golds to help Ukraine top the medals table with a total of seven medals.
The victories came in the mixed team event, the 10m synchro – in partnership with 15-year-old Mark Hrytsenko – and, for a third time, the 10m platform event which he had previously won as a 14-year-old at the home Championships in Kyiv 2019 and at the 2022 Championships in Rome.
British men also got onto the podium in Singapore as 30-year-old Jack Laugher – who won 3m synchro gold at the Rio 2016 Olympics with Chris Mears – secured bronze in that event partnering Anthony Harding, with whom he had taken Olympic bronze at the Paris 2024 Games.
Neutral athletes Nikita Shleikher and Ruslan Ternovoi took silver in the 10m synchronised platform event behind the Chinese pairing of Cheng Zilong and Zhu Zifeng.
Meanwhile Italy’s 18-year-old Matteo Santoro found out what it felt like to stand atop a world podium as he and Chiara Pellacani won a historic victory in the mixed 3m springboard…
Ukraine’s domination of the European Championships in Turkey was further bolstered by a bronze medal in the men’s 1m springboard through Danylo Konovalov.
But the Ukrainians were pushed all the way by a highly accomplished German team for whom the stylish Moritz Wesemann was outstanding.
Wesemann was a commanding winner of the 1m springboard title, and although he had to settle for bronze in the 3m springboard after a late lapse he had a second podium-topping experience in the men’s competition thanks to his 3m synchro partnership with Timo Barthel.
Seventeen-year-old Ole Rosler supplied a silver to the German cause in men’s events as he finished behind Sereda in the 10m platform and he added another in partnership with Espen Prenzyna in the 10m synchro.
The room at the top in the men’s 3m springboard was eventually filled by the super-consistent 33-year-old Andrzej Rzeszutek, who secured Poland’s first medal of the Championships in the last event.
Silver went to a highly composed Briton, Noah Penman, one of four 18-year-olds in the final.
Ukraine’s dominance in Antalya was mirrored by their performance at the European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships in Athens, where they took the Team Trophy thanks to a total medal tally of six gold, three silver and three bronze.
Germany, for whom Rosler won gold in an epic Boys A platform final where neutral athlete Nikita Kudryavtsev took silver, were the second country on the table with four gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
Italy were third on two gold, two silver and one bronze medal. One of the highlights for the Italians was the exciting finish which earned Valerio Mosca gold in the Boys A 3m springboard ahead of Great Britain’s Todd Geggus.
Mike Rowbottom for European Aquatics
