Rio de Janeiro –  Every two years, some of the best teenage divers gather to vie for junior world championship medals. This year, more than 200 athletes from 42 nations came to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the occasion. On Day 1, seven nations claimed hardware in the first three events.

In girls’ synchro platform, the pair of Abigail Gonzalez Roel and Rut Paez Manjarrez  edged Australian teammates Ruby Drogemuller and Ellie Cole by less than one point for the win. Great Britain’s Maisie Bond and Hannah Newbrook captured the bronze.

In the first boys’ event, Mexico snared its second gold medal of the day in synchro 3m as Jesus Agundez Mora and David Vazquez Cio came from behind on the final dive to overtake Italian silver medalists Simone Conte and Valerio Mosca who had only been diving together for two or three months. Croatia’s Luka Martinovic and Matej Nevescanin took the bronze. (Nevescanin was the 2022 junior world silver medalist with a different partner.)

The USA, Australia, and Ukraine went 1-2-3 in the mixed team event, ahead of 10 other teams.

For quotes and notes, keep reading.

Girl's Synchro Platform

As the Rio sun hit high noon on Sunday, the girls’ synchro platform competition was heating up.

Throughout the five-round contest, Mexico was never lower than second place as Rut Paez Manjarrez, 15, counted down her 14-year-old partner, Abigail Gonzalez Roel, before each dive. The duo scored 276.30 to win gold for Mexico.

After the victory, the Monterrey-based divers said, almost simultaneously: “We were very confident, and we have a good connection. We communicate a lot.” 

Meanwhile, the Australian silver medallists Ruby Drogemuller, 16, and Ellie Cole, 18, of Sydney, began their day in sixth place and moved up steadily in each round to tally 275.76 points in all, a mere 54-hundredths of apoint away from the gold. It was their first competition outdoors, and Cole loved it.

“It was quite fun, working with the wind and different lighting,” Cole said. Overall, I’m pretty happy.”

The Aussies had been diving together for only a year. “We’re like best friends; we feed off each other,” Drogemuller said. She realized they had a chance for a medal only after their final dive, a back 2½ with 1½ twists with a 3.2 degree of difficulty. “It was one of the best ones I think we’ve done,’ she said. But the Aussies were first on the start list for each dive, so they had to wait for eight other pairs to go to learn their fate. 

After Rio, Cole said she will be heading to university, likely in Sydney, to study aerospace engineering. “I’ve always enjoyed physics and math,” she explained.

Maisie Bond, 17, and Hannah Newbrook, 18, of Great Britain took a surprise bronze with 275.16 points, fending off the fourth-place duo from the US by 7.38 points. The key to the podium, Newbrook said, was that “we didn’t take it too seriously. We were just having fun together.” Since they live in different cities (London and Sheffield) they had only done about three training sessions as a synchro team before the Rio final.

Boy's Synchro 3m

The sun was still high during the boys’ synchro 3m event at the Parque Aquatico Julio Delamare, located right next to the Maracana football stadium.

Croatia’s Matej Nevescanin, 17, was the only returning medalist in the event from the 2022 Junior World Championships. On Sunday, he and his new partner, Luka Martinovic, 18, were always in medal contention and led the field with one dive to go – their hardest one – a forward 2 ½ with 2 twists (3.4 DD). It scored 60.18 points, and Croatia was in gold-medal position with five pairs remaining.

But Italy’s Simone Conte, 17, and Valerio Mosca, 17, only needed 60.69 points to overtake the Croatians with a relatively easy inward 2½ (with 3.0 DD). They nailed it – with room to spare – for 63.00 points. 

The only duo standing in the Italians’ way was the penultimate team, Jesus Agundez Mora, 18, and David Vazquez Cio, 16, of Mexico, who had a reverse 3½ on their card. They executed it well, and the dive’s 3.5 DD put them over the top for the gold. Incidentally, Mexico’s final dive wasn’t the hardest dive of the event (the US’ Josh Sollenberger and Luke Sitz did a 3.8 DD forward 4½ in round four) but it was the highest-scoring one, earning 72.45 points.  Mexico thus snared it’s second gold medal in less than two hours. Italy claimed the silver, and Croatia took the bronze.

Agundez Mora of Mexico had a very quick turnaround because he was competing in the early rounds of the mixed team event about a half hour later. But his partner, Vazquez Cio, confessed that Agundez Mora didn’t see the scoreboard during the competition. “But I did. And I knew if I jumped and [landed] with my head perfectly, we would win, and that’s what happened.”

The Italian silver medalists also had a story to tell. Mosca and Conte had only been trained together six or seven times. Their coach, Nicola Marconi, said that Mosca was supposed to compete in synchro in Rio with Matteo Santoro, but Santoro had an injured knee, “so we replaced him with Simone [Conte] two months ago.”

To make matters even more complicated, Conte of Italy is a platform diver and Mosca specializes in springboard. In Rio, Conte said, “it was really difficult to work on the boards. They’re not flexible and a little bit sideways. And there were many-many people so we only got a few dives [just before the competition]. I’m very happy because I wasn’t expecting a medal.”

As for the Croatian bronze medalist Nevescanin, who is headed for the University of Texas next year, he said, “We were going for that gold. Of course, we are disappointed, but we are still very proud of how we cooperated, how we worked together. We have been together for three years. We have great chemistry.”

His partner, Martinovic, added, “I’m really happy. This is my first medal at Junior World Championships. We had a feeling it’s possible to get gold, but this is a big step.”

Mixed Team

In the mixed team event, the United States and Ukraine were battling between first and second place for the first five rounds (of six). In the end, the Anna Lemkin and Joshua Hedberg of the US made the team’s highest-scoring dive in mixed synchro platform to add 67.20 points and finish with 361.50 points.  It was Hedberg’s second consecutive gold medal in the mixed team event at the junior world championship.

Lemkin said, “Josh is such a rock. He’s so fun to compete with. I look up to him and the rest of my teammates as well.” Kayla Jensen also shared the US victory because she had made the opening 3m individual dive.

Australia’s Maggie Grey and Johah Mercieca overtook Ukraine for the silver on their final dive, aided by the early-round efforts of Lucy Dovison and Benjamin Wilson to total 338.00 points for the silver.

“With a team event, there’s so much that can go on, so the outcome was welcomed and appreciated,” Wilson said. Wilson had celebrated his 18^th birthday just two days earlier, so Rio will mark his second and final junior world championships before he heads to Auburn University in Alabama in June 2025.

Ukraine earned the bronze with 329.40 points, ahead of fourth-place Germany.

Ukraine’s Kseniia Bochek was not only competing in her first junior world championships, but it was also the first time she had ever competed in the team event, “so it was twice as hard,” she said, adding that “I’m usually very emotional, very sensitive.” To stay calm, Bochek said she used music, breathing, and her coach helped as well.

“Honestly, we almost lost [the bronze] but in the end, we got a medal,” Bochek said. “I’m really happy and proud of my team.”

She and her medal-winning teammates, Kyrylo Azarov, Mark Hrytsenko, and Sofiia Vystavkina all train in Kyiv, the nation’s capital.