Two blockbuster finals brought seven days of top-draw continental diving to a close as the European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships Athens 2025 ended with Ukraine’s Diana Karnafel and Germany’s Ole Johannes Rosler taking the Girls A 3m Springboard and Boys A Platform titles respectively, with Ukraine also winning the Team Trophy.
Following a jam-packed morning of preliminary rounds, the top-12 divers in both events took to the Athens Olympic Aquatics Centre for the last time as they battled for the final medals on offer.
The girls’ final proved just how nail-biting the sport can be as Italy’s Giorgia de Sanctis lost out on the final dive, ceding the first place she had held for the majority of the event through a brilliant comeback by Karnafel.
The 18-yer-old Ukrainian, who won silver in this event at the last edition, improved on her individual scores with each passing dive – going from a 54 in the first round to a 63 in the final round. That Forward 2 ½ Somersaults 1 Twist Pike (5152B) was the last dive of the event, and it saw her take the gold medal from de Sanctis, who had all-but secured it with her four solid attempts.
Finishing just behind Karnafel’s score of 430.50, the Italian’s 423.30 was mostly the doing of an incredible Forward 2 ½ Somersaults 1 Twist Pike (5152B) of her own on round two – scoring her 67.50 points. Other consistent dives followed, but she was powerless to stop Karnafel’s final dive from taking the gold medal. Nevertheless, the result was her first medal of the competition, and Italy’s first girls’ medal.
The bronze medal went to Viktoriia Kazantseva, with the neutral athlete’s score of 421.05 seeing her win her third medal of the competition. After starting strongly and then slightly underperforming in her middle two dives, she avenged those performances with a solid score of 63.00 for her own Forward 2 ½ Somnersaults 1 Twist Pike (5152B), that ultimately saw her only two points off the silver medal herself, and ended her successful campaign on a high.
Rounding off the competition was the Boys A Platform final, which always sees the venue rife with excitement in the traditional curtain-closer.
The five-dive final list, following a lengthy preliminary session, saw all twelve divers throw down some of their best performances of the week for the final medal on offer.
The opening round couldn’t have made the above any more clear, with seven athletes scoring 70+ dives in their first attempt. The next two rounds followed the trend, as the judges were forced to be more frugal with their 9’s given the quality on show.
The battle for the top-spot quickly became a two-horse race between Rosler – who left last month’s senior European Diving Championships in Antalya with three silver medals – and neutral athlete Nikita Kudryavtsev following the opening rounds. Rosler scored 80+ in all-but-one of his dives, with his highlight being an event-best score of 88.80 for his Forward 4 ½ Somersaults Tuck (109C).
After losing the lead in the penultimate round to Kudryavtsev, he won it back with another solid score – this time a 81.60 for his Reverse 3 ½ Somersaults Tuck (307C) – seeing him take the gold medal by just 2 points with a total of 561.95.
The result was Germany’s first male gold medal of the competition, and their eighth medal of the week.
Kudryavtsev pushed Rosler all the way, though. The 17-year-old’s 83.30 for his Reverse 3 ½ Somersaults Tuck (307C) on the third dive was enough to bring it to a decider, but he fell just short of the mark and had to settle for the silver with a final score of 560.15.
Neutral athlete Timur Khaile Mariam produced a comeback of his own to take the bronze medal. After being in sixth place with two dives to go, he put in a score of 69 for his penultimate dive, before an 81.60 for his Back 2 ½ Somersaults 1 ½ Twists Pike (5253B) saw him leapfrog Italy’s Simone Conte into the medal positions and take the bronze.
Ukraine took the Team Trophy thanks to a total medal tally of six gold, three silver and three bronze (12 medals). Germany were the second country on the table with four gold, two silver and two bronze medals (eight total), with Italy third on two gold, two silver and one bronze medal (five total).
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Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
