Yona Knight-Wisdom came 23rd in the 1M springboard at the World Championships Yona Knight-Wisdom made history as he became the first Jamaican diver to compete at a World Championships when he appeared in the heats of the one-metre springboard in Barcelona. Born and bred in Leeds, Knight-Wisdom had a three-way choice of which country to represent – Jamaica from his father’s side, Barbados from his mother’s or Great Britain. He chose Jamaica and received his passport in January last year before becoming the first Jamaican male diver to compete internationally. Knight-Wisdom represented Jamaica for the first time in April 2012 in Germany, and on Saturday he came 23rd in the 1m springboard in only his fifth international competition. [hr] [column2] [/column2] [column2_last] [/column2_last] [hr] He was four places behind Britain’s Jack Laugher, who he trains with under former world champion Edwin Jongejans in Leeds. While Betsy Sullivan represented Jamaica at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston at the grand old age of 10 before going on to the 1972 Olympics, Knight-Wisdom is the spearhead for the sport in Jamaica today. He told Press Association Sport: “They have the framework but they don’t have any springboards. So, if they can get […]
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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.” [hr] [column2] [/column2] [column2_last] [/column2_last] [hr] 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 […]
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The National Aquatics Centre was briefly plunged into darkness six finals into the ultimate evening of competition at the 28th staging of the Carifta Swimming Championship. An announcement followed over the public address system, asking that the grandstand to the far side be evacuated. As the youngsters who became excited by the possible danger piled out, smoke was seen coming from the rear of the stand. The fire brigade was soon on the scene, as it was reported that there was a small fire coming from one of the generators. The area was cordoned off and persons were allowed to return to the stands and focus returned to the pool. This was the only dark spot on a bright night for Jamaica’s swimmers, as they bettered their medal haul from last year. At press time, with the six relays – yet to be contested – the country’s tally stood at 35: 11 gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze. Jamaica also moved up on the points standings, as they occupied fourth with 508 points, having finished sixth last year. Guadeloupe (686) led ahead of Trinidad and Tobago (630) and Aruba (601). Last year, Jamaica won 32 medals. Jamaica’s 11th gold […]
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HAILING FROM Leeds but representing Jamaica, the main goal for three-metre diver Yona Knight-Wisdom is to represent the Caribbean country at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil. But like every sportsperson, the price of success is not cheap and the 17-year-old from Chapelton needed financial support to assist him with achieving his dream of competing in Rio. And thankfully for Yona, who won a gold medal at the British National Diving Championships in Plymouth in February, entrepreneur Levi Roots has committed to sponsoring the promising athlete. Disclosing how he got in touch with the founder of Reggae Reggae Sauce, Yona told the Voice of Sport: “I sent him an email from the email address on his website saying what I was doing, what I was looking for, I sent him a video of some of my dives and they replied to me. They asked me to come down to London and have a meeting with them. I discussed it with my coach and with them and they were really happy give me some money for the next four years in the run up to the Olympics. “He was there in the meeting and he was asking me all […]
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