Champion diver

Year 11 St Kilda Road student Joshua Kehagias has been selected to represent Australia at the World Junior Diving Championships in Russia in September 2014. Joshua’s latest achievement is not his first. He was recently awarded two gold medals, and a silver medal for good measure, at the Elite Junior Nationals; he was named 2014 Australian Diver of the Yearfor his age group (for the third time); and also holds the Associated Public Schools Open diving record.

The teenager vividly remembers watching the Australian diving team compete at the 2004 Olympics in Athens on television. At the time the seven-year-old was taking swimming lessons and playing football, but it wasn’t long until he had convinced his mother to sign him up for diving lessons at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre.

Ten years later Joshua is a member of the Melbourne Elite Diving Academy and the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS). He has represented Australia countless times and his eyes are firmly placed on achieving success in Russia.

While Joshua makes diving look easy, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. The 16-year-old spends 25 hours each week training before and after school, and again on the weekend - an average afternoon diving session involves performing up to 100 dives.

He says balancing such an intense training routine and his studies has not come easily and takes a lot of dedication and support from both the VIS and staff at Wesley.

Whilst at times it can be difficult, Joshua wouldn’t have it any other way. He says it is all worth it once you get to travel overseas to a diving meet, “It is an amazing environment at these competitions in and out of the pool. It is a chance to make friends with people from all over the world, and meet athletes that you look up to”.

There is no one that Joshua looks up to more than Grant Nel. He is the diver that Joshua aspired to be like when he was seven years old, and a regular training partner, “Not only is he a great diver competing in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but he is a great friend and always there to support me whenever I get stressed or down.”

Joshua hopes to one day represent Australia at the Olympics, he says, “the opportunity to represent my country at the Olympics is what drives me to get up and go to training every morning.”

Wesley College congratulates Joshua on all his hard work. We look forward to cheering on in September!