13-Year Old Boy becomes the Youngest Gold Medalist to Win European Diving Championships

At an age where boys talk about undergoing puberty, 13-year old Ukrainian Oleskii Sereda won a gold medal for his country on the final day of the European Diving Championships 2019 in Kiev.

Watch the video of Oleskii Sereda’s spectacular dive-

It was Sereda’s second medal of the Championships, after his silver in the 10m mixed synchro. His gold medal also meant that Ukraine had won three gold medals in front of the home crowd.

Sereda got his hands on a gold medal with a total score of 488.85 points, just over 14 ahead of the rest of the field.

In the Ukraine in the mixed team event, Ukraine finished in a disappointing fifth place. But Sereda got his hands on a gold medal with a total score of 488.85 points.

France’s Benjamin Auffret finished with a silver medal for the second successive European Championships in the event, scoring 474.90, while Russian diver, Ruslan Ternovoi took the bronze medal with 445.25, only 0.2 points ahead of his team-mate Nikita Shleikher.

Medals tally at the European Diving Championships 2019

Russia                   6          2          4          12

Ukraine                 3          3          1          7

Germany              2          4          2          8

Netherlands          1          1          0          2

Italy                     1          0          1          2

Great Britain         0          2          4          6

France                  0          1          0          1

Switzerland           0          0          1          1

Sereda’s stunning effort was similar to how Tom Daley, in March 2008, announced himself to the diving community in Eindhoven, where he won the European diving gold at the age of 13 years and 10 months. Sereda, now, broke the record, doing it at three months younger than Dayley, at 13 years and 7 months.

His eyes would now be on a bigger prize at the Olympics in Tokyo next year. A competition for which he would be ‘just eligible’ to participate with their criteria of being at least 14 years old.

After winning the 10 m gold, Oleksii Sereda revealed about the nervousness before the dive and how said that his preparations had led to the results.

“I’m happy that I could finish on the first place. My third dive was not that good but the others were satisfying,” he said.

“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. 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’ve 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.”

The second placed Bejamin Auffret was also full of praise for the 13-year old.

“I’m not bothered that a 13-year old bettered me. It’s not about the age but about the abilities and he got all the skills already which make him a great diver. It’s so good to have such a talented young competitor join us, we will have a lot of fun in the years coming,” Auffret said.