Kash Tarasoff Plans to Rebound
Junior World Championships
Montréal, August 24, 2026 – Saskatchewan’s Kash Tarasoff had an eventful day on Monday at the Junior World Diving Championships in Rijeka, Croatia, finishing eighth in the mixed team event and ninth in the boys’ synchronized platform competition.
Tarasoff and his teammates Lila Gokiert, Lila Stewart, and Sara-Jade Tessier amassed a total of 326.20 points in the mixed team contest to claim eighth place. The event was won by China, with a total score of 414.55.
“We thought we would do better. As for our individual dives, I feel good about my performance,” said Tarasoff, who, earlier in the day, had competed in the boys’ synchronized platform event with Samuel Talbot, who hails from Quebec.
The Canadian duo finished ninth, with 267.84 points.
“We both made errors on our first dive, so that placed us pretty low in the standings. We knew we had what it took to come back, but we lacked a bit of momentum. We could have been contenders for a medal, had our first dive gone better. Things could have been quite different.”
Miroslav Kiselev and Kirill Kosimov of Russia (301.14) nabbed the world title.
In the day’s other diving finals, Lila Stewart of Saskatchewan finished seventh in the girls’ 3m springboard event (ages 16-18) with 394.00 points. Viktoriia Kazantseva (440.25) and Nadezhda Trifonova (409.95) of Russia took the top two spots, followed by Kseniia Bochek of Ukraine (409.70).
Yesterday, Stewart won the silver medal in the 1m springboard competition (ages 16-18).
Tarasoff also won a medal at these Junior World Championships, capturing gold in the boys’ synchronized 3m event (ages 14-18) with his teammate Samuel McCaffrey of Quebec.
There is still more to come for Tarasoff at these championships, and he hopes to step onto the podium once again, this time in the individual event.
“I’m really looking forward to it, and it’s always been my biggest event! Each of my dives is going to have to be even better than usual. That’s what it’s going to take. My other events were just a warm-up,” he joked.
