PARIS, France — Retiring Yona Knight-Wisdom saw his dream of a maiden Olympic Men’s 3-metre springboard final place agonisingly snatched away before immediately pledging to help nurture the future of Jamaican diving.

The 29-year-old Jamaican men’s team captain, in his third Olympics, was on course to fulfil his ambition throughout the semi-final at the Centre Aquatique in northern Paris — holding the necessary top 12 position in each of the first five rounds.

But, despite regularly improving on his preliminary round scores for the same dives, Knight-Wisdom could only watch as Australian friend and competition rival Kurtis Mathews edged past his final total of 412.40 points.

The tall Jamaican led Mathews by 3.65 points going into their sixth and final efforts, only to be marked 8.40 points fewer by the panel of six judges for their closing dives.

Knight-Wisdom bravely faced up to the facts and admitted to having mixed emotions before commenting: “Finishing 13th is the worst place to finish but I’m so proud that I finished with a really strong dive. I didn’t know where I was but knew I was in the mix.

“It’s a shame about round five (which had been his nemesis in the preliminary round) although I improved my score. I improved my overall performance from the Prelim’s (where he totalled 382.90), so in terms of what I was trying to do, I’ve achieved that,” he said.

“This is the best performance I have had in a semi-final — I was close in Rio and Tokyo but I made big mistakes in both which caused me to miss out, whereas here I feel like I did everything right, just dropped a fraction short with my fifth dive. To go over 400 points is what I was aiming for but it’s a shame there were just 12 better divers from me on the day,” Knight-Wisdom continued.

“I can’t let loose immediately because if anyone pulls out I am first reserve and would step in but it doesn’t very often happen — it’s unlikely,” he explained.

Confirming his immediate retirement after a 13-year senior career, the 190cm diver — unusually tall for the sport — added:

“I’ve had some unbelievable experiences. I figured out what it takes to push yourself to the highest level in sport and hopefully inspired a lot of people to try and do the same. No matter what your size, body shape, who you are or where you come from, you can do whatever you want, providing you put the work in. I can take away the memories and the friendships I’ve made and move on.

“I’m definitely retiring and am happy that I finished with a strong confident series of dives. I’m heading straight for Jamaica now to try to develop a dive programme and hoping to find some investment sponsorship to help fund [it] to take it forward. It’s going to be a tough journey but I want to leave a legacy for Jamaica,” he affirmed.

Jamaica’s Yona Knight-Wisdom competes in the men’s 3m springboard diving preliminary during the Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, France, on Tuesday. (Photo: AFP)