From September 16-21, 2008, the best young divers from around the world will gather at the Schwimmhalle West in Aachen, Germany for the 17th FINA World Junior Diving Championships. Approximately 220 divers from 40 countries will participate, with boys and girls competing in both “B” (born 1993/1994) and “A” (born 1990/1991/1992) categories. The event programme includes 3m springboard, 1m springboard, platform, and 3m synchro.
The German Swimming Federation (Deutscher SchwimmVerband e.V.) is staging the event, in conjunction with local organiser “SV Neptun Aachen Club”, which is welcoming the international diving community for a second time, as the 14th FINA Junior Diving World Championships in 2002 was also held in Aachen under SV Neptun. The experience and support of the Aachen Organising Committee guarantees a high-quality competition in an exciting environment.
The FINA World Junior Diving Championships assumes a special importance in the context of the development of diving. It reveals new talents, brings more youth to the FINA sport environment, and contributes to the reinforcement of clean and friendly competition. From these Championships, diving enthusiasts get an exclusive sneak-peak at the diving greats of tomorrow, as well as an indication of which countries, aside from those which are already dominant, are building strong diving programmes for the future.
This year, the established diving nations are well-represented, including Australia (10 divers), Canada and USA (16 divers each), Mexico (13 divers), Cuba (3), Sweden (6), Italy (7), Great Britain (8), Russia (with 17 divers), the power-house China (15), and of course the host Germany, which will have 12 divers in action. But the competition also welcomes young athletes from countries such as Armenia, Iran, Kuwait, Macedonia, Monaco, Cyprus, Ecuador, Guam, and many more.