Chapeltown’s Yona Knight-Wisdom, whose father was born in Kingston, is officially Jamaica’s number one diver and has high hopes of joining Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake at the opening parade ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Yona made his debut for Jamaica earlier this year when he competed at an international meeting in Dresden, Germany, advancing to the finals.
This past Easter weekend, competing for his City of Leeds club, Yona won a Gold in the 1m event at the British Gas Elite National Junior Diving Championships, scoring 502, a new Personal Best.
Knight Wisdom also won Silver in the 3m event. “I couldn’t be happier with these results and it gives me huge confidence for the summer international competitions”, said Yona, bubbling with enthusiasm. “It’s also a fantastic way to end my junior career.”
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The Elite National Championship is the highlight on the domestic junior calendar and was held at the John Charles Centre in Leeds, where the country’s top under 18 divers battled it out for honours.
“British diving is at a really high standard at the moment with the likes of Jack Laugher and Tom Daley”, Knight-Wisdom confirmed. “It could be quite hard for me to get into the GB team at the internationals. But my coach believes that I can compete at these international events to a decent standard.
“He suggested that I switch to Jamaica and now I am Jamaica’s first ever male diver! And if I was to make Rio in 2016 I would be the first ever Jamaican diver to compete in an Olympics so there’s quite a lot of history in it.”
Taking part in national and international diving competitions is expensive. Yona currently has one sponsor – Levi Roots, founder of Reggae Reggae Sauce – and is looking for more. If you or your business would like to help him fulfill his dream of competing in Rio in 2016, contact him via info@teamja.com or on twitter at @YonaKW.
Article by Carole Carey-Campbell
