Day three at the European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships Athens 2025 continued the trend from the previous two days – showcasing fierce battles, quality performances and intriguing storylines as the competition hit full stride.
Following a morning preliminary session that saw twelve divers in both the Boys A 1m Springboard and Girls A Platform progress to the evening session, the former was the first to get underway as the sun came down on the Olympic Centre of Athens.
Ukraine’s Kyrylo Azarov led he way by just a handful of points from Great Britain’s Noah Penman following the morning’s required dives. Being number one didn’t seem to phase the 17-year-old, though, as he never faltered through five fantastic optionals – despite pressure applied at times from parts of the field.
With every dive scoring within three points of each other throughout, Azarov held his nerve and clinched the gold with a final score of 522.70 – the highlight being a Reverse 2 ½ Somersaults Tuck (305C) on the third dive that earned him straight 7’s and 7.5’s from the judges and a solid score of 66.00.
In fact, all three podium finishers put together a string of impressive dives. Italy’s Valerio Mosca, seeded third, overtook Penman in the opening stages before the pair were separated by just half a point with one dive to go. Under pressure, the 18-year-old put in the best dive of his evening – a rapid Inward 2 ½ Somersaults Tuck which scored him a huge 69.75 points – to take second place away from the Brit and push him down to third with a total score of 512.30.
Penman had put in a stellar dive of his own to open proceedings, as his Inward 2 ½ Somersaults Tuck (405C) scored exactly the same as his Italian counterpart and he finished on a score of 507.50 – showing that all of the medallists have close to 70+ scoring dives in their list as they make the transition to senior competition.
The Girls Platform final provided a similar level of clinical precision – this time from the 5, 7.5 and 10m heights. Neutral athletes Aleksandra Kedrina and Viktoriia Kazantseva traded blows throughout the short four dive optional final list, after qualifying in second and first respectively following the preliminary rounds.
With both athletes almost always scoring above 60 points, the gold medal was decided for the most part by Kedrina’s unbelievable second dive – a quality Inward 3 ½ Somersaults Tuck (407C) that saw her take 81.60 points; far and away the biggest score of the competition so far. Another huge score of 72 in the final round saw her take the gold medal on a total of 431.15.
Kazantseva’s 67.20 for her Inward 3 ½ Somersaults Tuck (407C) was her pick of the lot, as she finished with a score of 412.00, which was still comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack.
The battle for the bronze medal was a much more competitive affair. Great Britain’s Skye Fisher-Eames occupied the medal places for three of the final four dives, before Germany’s Jule Leonie Eisenberg snatched it away following an impressive score of 60.80 for her Back 2 ½ Somersaults 1 ½ Twists Pike (5253B) – which put her ahead of both Fisher-Eames and Ukraine’s Diana Shevchenko on a total score of 382.90, with the pairing not managing to post dives above 50 points as the final dives were completed.
With two more events in the books, day four of the competition sees platform, springboard and synchronised springboard on the agenda as the European Aquatics Junior Diving Championships 2025 reaches the halfway stage.
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Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
