If you ask Jamaica’s diving flag bearer Yona Knight-Wisdom about his journey since his historic performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, he would tell you that it has not been an easy road.

The English-born diver, whose mother is Barbadian and father Jamaican, sets appropriate goals, which helps to track his progress and provides feedback about the areas of his dives that need to be strengthened.

Add to that the fact that he holds strict expectations which does not allow for areas of his dives to be weak, thereby ensuring that he gives a capital effort on each occasion.

Still, the results were not always what he expected along the way.

But given his unwavering commitment and determination to reap success for the black, green and gold, Knight-Wisdom kept plugging away at training knowing very well that it takes flawless routines to turn his fortunes around.

Knight-Wisdom has shown in the past that he possesses enough ability to rise to the occasion when it matters most, and that he did at the 18th edition of the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru on Thursday night.

The 24-year-old, who skyrocketed from grass roots to prominence when he achieved the feat of being Jamaica’s first-ever male diver to compete at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, pocketed silver in the men’s one-metre springboard competition at the aquatic centre.

Knight-Wisdom tallied an overall score of 429.90 for second place behind Mexico’s Juan Manuel Celaya Hernandez, who posted 435.60, with American Andrew Capobianco (411.25) taking bronze.

The elated Jamaican believes a performance of this nature was long in coming.

“I’m always very good at finding positives from every performance I do, but it’s nice to have a medal; to remind me of this event. But the meaning of the result is way more than just the medal, it shows me how far I have come on this process of building confidence in myself and my diving, and based on this I am much closer to where I want to be.

“That makes me happy and in turn builds my confidence even more going forward,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

After positioning himself well from the first round where he never faded farther than fourth throughout the six rounds of action, Knight-Wisdom, who went into the final round of dives in first position, literally saved his best dive for last — a forward two-and-a-half somersault followed by a twist and ending in a pike.

Interestingly, that dive is more accustomed to the three-metre springboard competition and one that Knight-Wisdom revealed he only started working on in one-metre action this season, and was yet to perfect.

“That’s the dive that I just learned this season and I still hadn’t done that much work on it, I just had the trust in my dives. I knew what I was capable of and fortunately I was able to execute them near to that standard.

“It was special; it’s a very difficult one and one that I shouldn’t be able to do on a one-metre, so to do it like that is unreal. I used to struggle on that dive in three-metre, but it has become one of my most consistent dives and one of my favourites,” Knight-Wisdom shared shortly after completing the medal-winning dive.

Going into the final dive Knight-Wisdom believed he had to execute efficiently, which resulted in him being tense and his thoughts spiralling, but his usual rituals assisted in easing the pressure.

“I like to keep myself moving and at the same time I like to sit down, so when I sat down waiting in between dives, I was actually playing Sudoku and getting into the rhythm of my music, and that helps me relax through the competition.

“In terms of come outs and entries, it was almost where I want it; things could still have been sharper and entries cleaner. But I can’t ask for much more in a high-pressure situation such as a Pan-American final,” he noted.

Looking ahead to today’s three-metre competition and by extension future competitions, Knight-Wisdom pointed out that continued support from the Jamaican people would serve as added motivation on his current path.

“This result helps to build my confidence going forward, so hopefully I can take that into the three-metre.

“But I just want to thank Jamaica for the support; it has not been easy since Rio 2016 and I want to make it back to that Olympic stage. But this is a great step on that pathway and I want that support to continue because I feed off that energy,” the six-foot, three-inch athlete ended.