WAIS athlete Maddison Keeney has won a bronze medal at the 2014 FINA Junior Diving World Championships in Russia.
The 18 year-old returned a score of 415.00 for third place and a junior world championship medal in the girl’s 1m springboard, behind China’s Wu (421.30) and Russia’s Polyakova (415.25).
Keeney earned the highest scoring dive of the final, but also missed crucial points on her final dive to fall from gold medal contention. However, in a year that has included World Cup and Commonwealth Games medals, Keeney has emerged as one of Australia’s brightest young talents in 2014 and with the Rio Olympics in 2016 on the horizon, her name is one that will be closely monitored in the lead up.
Keeney also competed in the final of the girl’s 3m springboard and held a medal position early before eventually finishing in fifth place with a score of 436.45.
Fellow WAIS diver Josh Ong competed at junior world championship level for the first time, contesting the boy’s 3m springboard. Ong was unable to qualify for the final, but executed some clean dives and gained a huge amount of experience to prepare him for the up-coming Australian domestic season and future international competitions.
