PARIS, France — History-making Yona Knight-Wisdom knows exactly what he has to improve if he is to qualify for his first men’s 3m springboard diving final after comfortably progressing through the preliminary round at Paris’ Centre Aquatique on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old Edinburgh-based athlete, who has been representing the country of his father Trevor’s birth since 2012, finished 14th with 18 of 25 competitors to qualify, on a total of 390.65 points.

Having been the first-ever diver to represent a Caribbean country at the Olympics when qualifying for Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the unusually tall for a diver sports science graduate was honoured to be named Jamaica’s men’s team captain, alongside women’s counterpart Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at Paris 2024 and is now focussed on making his first Olympic final at the third attempt.

He made the penultimate stage at Rio 2016.

“I’ve had a few competitions on Independence Day,” he said. “So, that’s a feeling I’ve experienced before but it definitely gave me a bit of extra energy, as did having family and friends with Jamaican flags and having President [Christopher] Samuda [head of the Jamaican Olympic Association] here.

“The prelim is all about surviving and doing enough to get through.

“I was really happy with my first four dives. They were exactly where I want and need them to be, although there is definitely room for improvement.

“My fifth dive dropped a little but that happens in prelims. There were a lot of divers that made mistakes — but fortunately, I minimised the mistakes that I made and that was enough to get me through.

“I’ll try again tomorrow and try and improve on everything if I can.”

“It comes down to very small points but I don’t decide those points — that’s down to the judges.

“I have to concentrate on repeating my dive as best as possible.

“I have to control the energy, control the emotions, and approach my dive the correct way.

“You can’t replicate the feeling of an Olympic prelim or any event in training.

“I obviously have to improve my fifth dive [a reverse three-and-a-half somersaults with tuck — carrying a notably severe degree of difficulty, which yielded his lowest mark] and I’m going to do exactly the same series of dives in the semi. No changes — I’ll just go again.”

Leeds-born Wisdom-Knight, who now lives and trains with Edinburgh Swim Club in Scotland, sports a characteristic towel, embossed with the Jamaican flag, every time he climbs onto the take-off board and chose Jamaica ahead of Great Britain, and his mother Grace’s native Barbados from when he began international competition 13 years ago.

Since, he has contested seven World Championships and cites his silver medal at the 2016 edition in Rio as being the most memorable.

“My World Cup silver medal was a huge moment; it’s hard to remember as it was a bit of a blur.

“To be at that level was phenomenal but every experience gets better and better.”

The semi-final is due today at 3:00 am Jamaican time, with the top 12 progressing to tomorrow evening’s final.