Samuel McCaffrey: In the Running Until the Very End
Junior World Championships
Montreal, August 22, 2026 – Fresh off his gold medal performance in the synchronized 3m event yesterday alongside Kash Tarasoff, Samuel McCaffrey was in contention for a spot on the podium in Saturday’s individual 3m springboard event (ages 16-18) at the Junior World Diving Championships in Rijeka, Croatia.
However, his final plunge of the day did not go as planned. The athlete from Pointe-Claire lost his balance on the board and was forced to jump feet-first into the water, thus putting an end to his medal hopes.
“I feel that my first few dives in the finals were very consistent. And I’ve been working hard on that aspect, so I was happy to see the results. But now I’ll have to go back to the drawing board. I felt confident going into my last dive, so I’m not really sure what happened. I was way too far over to the right, and if I had attempted the dive, I could have hit the side of the pool. I had no choice but to play it safe. It’s an experience I’ll learn from,” said McCaffrey, moments after the finals came to an end.
He thus finished twelfth overall, with a total of 225.50 points. The gold medal went to Finn Awe of Germany, whose final score was 359.20. Awe was accompanied on the podium by Matvei Pomoshnikov of Russia and Maori Pomeroy-Farrell of Fiji.
Earlier in the day, McCaffrey had placed fourth in the qualifiers, while his teammate Arnaud Corbeil had finished 17th with a score of 445.25.
“I felt very proud, and I was especially happy with my qualification rounds. I think they better reflect what I’m capable of. I think I was very solid, and I felt confident about the rest of the day,” said the Québécois.
On the girls’ side, Lila Gokiert (Calgary) and Ella Lindsay(Nepean-Ottawa) competed in the synchronized 10m platform finals (ages 14-18). The Canadians delivered their best dive of the day in the second heat, scoring 46.20 points—the second-highest score of the round—which placed them in provisional eighth place.
In the next round, however, they slipped down a spot, but were able to hold onto ninth place in the final standings, with a total score of 214.47.
China’s Yuehan Jiang and Qingcheng Yuan (317.28) captured the gold medal, ahead of the Mexicans (292.02) and the Russians (283.20).
On Sunday, Lila Stewart and Mackenzie-Mai Van Houtte-Cachero will take part in the girls’ 1m springboard competition (ages 16-18), while Alistar Nisbet and Chase Shaw compete in the boys’ 10m platform event (ages 14-15).
