Courtesy: FINA
LAUSANNE (Switzerland) – The world’s best age-group divers will come to Montreal, Canada for the FINA World Junior Diving Championships from 27 November to 4 December 2022. Over 250 promising divers from more than 40 National Federations, between the ages of 14-18, are expected to compete in the heart of Canada’s Quebec province.
Divers at the FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2022 will be divided into two age groups: athletes aged 16-18 will compete in Group A while athletes aged 14-15 will compete in Group B.
Both age divisions will compete in the boys’ and girls’ individual platform (5m, 7.5m, 10m) and springboard (1m, 3m) events. The age groups will be combined for the boys’ and girls’ synchronised diving springboard (3m) and platform (5m, 7.5m, 10m) events as well as the Mixed Team Event.
Montreal’s Olympic Park Sports Centre, a venue built for the Montreal 1976 Olympics, will be home to the competitions. Part of the greater Parc Olympique multi-sports complex that was completely renovated in 2015, the venue is a community pool that is also used by high-performance athletes.
“Junior Worlds was really the highlight of my junior career; it was the biggest competition that I had done. Looking back on it now, I’m really appreciative of the experience and it really helped me to get where I am, having gone to the World Championships on a senior level,” said Tokyo 2020 Olympian and 2021 World Cup gold medallist Caeli McKay, who trains at the Montreal’s Olympic Park Sports Centre on a daily basis.
“Having competed here in Montreal at the World Series has also been an incredible experience, having a hometown crowd and showing what you go in your home pool is just amazing,” McKay added. “So definitely, having the Junior Worlds in Montreal I think will be an amazing experience for the junior divers, it will be something for them to be proud of.”
A regular stop on the international diving circuit, Montreal has hosted 11 FINA Diving Grand Prix events and three FINA Diving World Series in addition to the FINA World Championships and Olympic Games.
“I have been striving to compete at the Junior World Championships for several years,” said Benjamin Tessier, a member of the Canadian junior diving team. “It’s the international event that I have been working very hard towards as the main goal. After missing the 2020 edition of Junior Worlds because of the pandemic, the motivation to qualify for the event in 2022 is even more present, especially knowing that it will take place in my home pool.”
First held in 1977 in Woodlands, USA, the FINA World Junior Championships in Montreal will be the 24th event edition. Kyiv, Ukraine hosted the last FINA World Junior Diving Championship in December 2021.