He is all of 13 but is already on the way to Tokyo Olympics 2020. The final day of the European Diving Championships in Kiev witnessed history as Oleksii Sereda won the gold medal in the men's 10 metre platform, becoming the youngest European to do so.
He broke Tom Daley's record, who was 13 years and 10 months old when he won his European title in 2008 in Eindhoven. Sereda is three months younger than Daley.
In front of a home crowd at the Liko Sports Centre, Sereda first aced the preliminary round and then came up with six brilliant dives to score a total of 488.85 points to secure the gold and a place at next year's Games. The minimum eligibility for divers at the Olympics is 14 but Sereda will be able to participate as his birthday is in December.
It was his second medal of the Championships, having won a silver in the 10m mixed synchro.
Weighing 43kg and 151cm tall, the Ukranian teenager was an amusing sight on the podium but he handled nerves far better than the second-placed Benjamin Auffret—2017 champion—of France and Ruslan Ternovoi of Russia, who came third.
also read
- Difficult lockdown prepared us for challenges of Olympics: Harmanpreet
- Simone Biles says she should have quit gymnastics 'way before Tokyo'
- Auction bids for Chopra, Lovlina's Olympic equipment race to Rs 10 crore
- Paralympic closing marks end of Tokyo's 8-year Olympic saga
- Sonam Malik responds to WFI notice; federation awaits Vinesh Phogat's reply
It has been a promising period for Sereda, having come fourth at the World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju three weeks ago.
“I’m happy that I could finish on the first place. My third dive was not that good but the others were satisfying,” he was quoted as saying.
“I wouldn’t say I was not nervous before the competition, if you see differently then you saw it wrong. I was just as nervous as everyone else, I just kept thinking on my dives, wanted to keep my focus and close out any chance to commit any mistakes.
“I wasn’t really looking at the other ones’ DDs (degree of difficulty). As of now, I’ve got used to compete among young divers with the same age as mine where these DDs are the usual ones. The first time I have competed with senior divers was at the World Championships and now here at these Europeans, but this did not affect my preparations and my performance. I just try to do my job the best possible and do not really care of the results. But of course, I am happy that I could win, it’s very nice,” Sereda was quoted as saying.
Russia dominated the Championships, winning 12 medals, including six gold.
