By Nick Hope
Aquatics correspondent in Poland
The continent’s leading divers will look to secure places for their respective nations at the Paris 2024 Olympics via this year’s European Championships in Rzeszów.
As with artistic swimming, the 2023 continental diving championships are taking place as part of the wider multi-sport European Games competition, which runs across Poland from 21 June to 2 July.
Diving – 22-28 June – is returning to the European Games line-up for the first time since the inaugural event – Baku 2015 – when it featured as a junior competition.
Saskia Oettinghaus and Elena Wassen of Germany, as well as British pair Ross Haslam and James Heatly all claimed medals in Azerbaijan eight years ago and will now seek senior honours – and Olympic places – at Krakow-Malopolska 2023.
There will be four Paris 2024 berths up-for-grabs in Poland which shall be awarded to the respective female and male winners of the individual 3m and 10m disciplines.
2023 DIVING EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – ONES-TO-WATCH:
ITALY:
Chiara Pellacani was the standout diver of the Roma 2022 European Championships, claiming five gold medals in front of home fans and will be a clear favourite for further successes, particularly in the individual 3m event.
However, team-mate Elena Berocchi, the reigning European 1m champion will also be keen to rival her countrywoman for that sole Olympic berth.
On the men’s side Lorenzo Marsaglia will be looking to back-up his shock 3m European crown attained in Italy last year with Giovanni Tocci another leading contender.
16-year-old World junior champion Matteo Santoro is still seen as an ‘emerging talent’ but is a key-one-to-watch in the build up to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
GERMANY:
With Olympic, World and European medal-winning powerhouses Patrick Hausding and Tina Punzel having both retired since the Tokyo 2020 Games Germany finds itself searching for a new generation of stars.
Timo Barthel showed his medal-winning potential with World and European medals in 2022, while Hausding’s Olympic bronze medal-winning synchronised partner Lars Rüdiger is another leading name in the team.
On the women’s side Wassen sisters Christina and Elena have both claimed medals at this level before and will again be expected to push for the podium in Poland.
GREAT BRITAIN:
The nation topped the overall diving medal standings at the Roma 2022 European Aquatics Championships, but with the World Aquatics Championships taking place in Fukuoka, Japan, from 14-22 July, they have opted to send many of their emerging talents to Poland.
Even without Olympic champions Jack Laugher and Matty Lee, as well as major medallists Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, Lois Toulson and Dan Goodfellow, the nation possesses strong podium potential.
Olympians Eden Cheng, Grace Reid and James Heatly have won multiple honours at this level, while Ben Cutmore, Desharne Bent-Ashmeil and Amy Rollinson were break-out stars at Roma 2022.
UKRAINE:
Think of Ukrainian divers and one name is likely to spring immediately to mind, that of Oleksiy Sereda, who in 2019 set a new record as the sport’s youngest-ever male European champion when he claimed the title at the age of 13.
He will enter the 2023 Championships as a gold medal favourite in the 10m platform event, but the now 17-year-old is far from the nation’s only athlete with podium potential.
2018 Youth Olympic medallist Sofiya Lyskun has won seven European honours since becoming a senior diver and her synchronised partner Kirill Boliukh is another who has impressed over the last 12 months.
OTHER ONES-TO-WATCH:
Michelle Heimbery (Switzerland) is a two-time European silver medallists, having finished second in the 1m event at Budapest 2020, before claiming the runner-up spot in the 3m discipline at Roma 2022.
Will 2023 be the year she qualifies for her second Olympics and finally stands on top of the podium?
Inge Jansen (the Netherlands) became European champion back in 2019 and the Dutch diver would traditionally be seen as a likely gold medal contender in the women’s individual 3m springboard event.
However, after attaining her nation’s best-ever Olympic diving result – with fifth at the Tokyo 2020 Games – she took time out of the sport to become a mother for the first time and Krakow-Malopolska 2023 will be her first major event since returning to the sport.
Matthew Dixon (Great Britain) was once dubbed the ‘new Tom Daley’ as he both hailed from the same part of the UK, Plymouth, and bore an uncanny resemblance to the Olympic champion diver at a young age.
Despite Commonwealth successes early in his career, subsequent injuries and mental health struggles stalled his development, but he is now returning to form and determined to land a first European honour since 2019.
