RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Jamaica’s Yona Knight-Wisdom just missed out on grabbing a spot in the final of the men’s 3M spring board by just eight points at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre here yesterday.

Knight-Wisdom finished 14th with 381.40 points from his six dives and was just eight points behind the 12th and final qualifier, Jack Laugher of Great Britain with 389.40. Ironically, Wisdom and Laugher are teammates at City of Leeds Diving club in England.

“Me and Jack are great friends and we like to talk about dives in between dives and see how each other is going. We were really close to each other in the competition as well. I was diving number eight and he was diving at 12, so we kind of cross paths a lot. He is in and I am excited to watch him in the finals later on,” said Knight-Wisdom.

Standing at 6 ft 3 ins tall, which is considered an awkward height for a diver, Knight-Wisdom matched his much shorter competitors dive for dive. He started well with a 75, which placed him seventh after round one. But two low scores on his second and third dives basically put paid to a top 12 finish and a final spot.

Knight-Wisdom scored 48 and 45.90 and fell to 16th from 18 divers on show at the halfway mark. But his last three dives were much better, which saw him getting 63, 72 and 77.59.

“Every time I compete I aim for 400 points, and I knew this Olympics would be slightly lower scoring than most others because of the condition. But to be 19 points off 400, is why I am disappointed. Anything like normal, I would have been in,” he pointed out.

“I mean 381 is a solid score, but not quite what I was looking for. It was just mistakes and that’s just my fault. I can’t blame anything else but myself… I just got to learn from that,” he added.

“I was actually really calm for the first few rounds and that’s kind of the problem for me, because I didn’t have enough adrenaline to help that second and third batch up. But I brought it back well. I did three good dives to close out my programme,” said Knight-Wisdom.

The impressive Yuan Cao of China scored 489.10 with scores of 85, 56, 94.50, 77.40, 85 and 91.20, and he was almost 20 points ahead of second-placed Rommel Pacheco of Mexico with 469.70. Russia’s Evgenli Kuznetsov was third with 468.35.

The 21-year-old Knight-Wisdom, who is the first male diver from Jamaica to qualify for the Olympic Games, thanked the Jamaican public for support.

“I just say massive thanks for all the support. I have been getting some incredible messages just after this event. It is what has helped me to get to this position now. I hope I can keep the country proud over the next four years,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“I am disappointed because the expectations are high that I set myself. But I can be proud of what I did here. I made the Olympic semi-final in my first Games and I can look forward to the next four years.

“I have achieved my dream [as] it has been an amazing year for me. I graduated from university; I got a silver medal at the World Cup. I can take this experience and build on it,” he added.

Knight-Wisdom, who is the cousin of Liverpool footballer Andre Wisdom, says his confidence is stacked high following this experience and he knows he can start mix it up with the big boys not long from now.

“I can start challenging these guys because I prove to myself that I am actually up there with the best in the world,” said Knight-Wisdom.

“If I can increase my degree of difficulty with the same quality as the dives I got now, I can challenge them guys and maybe a medal,” he added.