Five NSWIS divers selected for world junior championships in Brazil

Five New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) Scholarship athletes were selected in Australia’s 15-strong team to compete at next month’s 2024 World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Paris Olympian Ellie Cole will join fellow Institiute athletes Lachlan Abbott, Hannah Smith, Ruby Drogemuller and Deanna Drake in competing at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre, which was the diving venue for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The competition, which runs from Sunday 24th November to Monday 29th November 2024, pits 250 of the world’s most talented junior divers (aged between 14-18) from over 40 nations against one another.  

The Australian team was selected based on each athletes’ performance at the Australian Junior Elite Nationals in Brisbane two weeks ago in Brisbane. The NSWIS divers collected between them a haul of five gold medals, three silver and two bronze.

Indeed, NSWIS divers dominated the Girls Junior A Platform even with Smith (photographed above with her gold medal), Drogemuller (silver), Gao (bronze), Phoebe James (fourth) and Vernokia Alkhimora taking out the top five spots in the field of nine divers.

In a pleasing result, each NSWIS Scholarship holder finished in the top six of their respective events, while a small group of NSWIS training agreement athletes performed well, as did members of the Diving NSW Talent program.

Seventeen-year-old Cole was preselected to the team based on her performance at the Paris Games, where she marked her Olympic debut by qualifying for the final.

First held in 1977 in Woodlands, USA, the World Aquatics Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro will be the event’s 25^th edition. Athletes aged between 16-18 will compete in Group A, while those aged between 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.

Australian Team for 2024 World Aquatics Junior Diving Championships, Rio de Janeiro.

BOYS A: Lachlan Abbott (NSWIS), Benjamin Wilson, Jaxon Bowshire, Jonah Merceica.

GIRLS A: Ellie Cole (NSWIS), Hannah Smith (NSWIS), Ruby Drogemuller (NSWIS), Alexandria Sando, Emily Francis, Lucy Dovison.

BOYS B: Archie Forsyth.

GIRLS B: Deanna Drake (NSWIS), Jasmine Wallcroft, Keira Wang, Maggie Grey.

NSWIS