Australian divers Cassiel Rousseau, Maddison Keeney and Kurtis Mathews have all claimed national crowns at today’s Australian Open Championships, including Nomination Trials, held in Adelaide. 

The result all but secures each athlete a ticket to Paris 2024 Olympic Games in their respective events, with the three set to be nominated for Australian Olympic Team for selection in the coming days. 

Men’s 10-Metre Platform World Champion, Cassiel Rousseau (QLD) put on a dominant display edging out 18 year old Jaxon Bowshire (SA) and 22 year old Sam Fricker (NSW). 

Following the event, Rousseau said he did not become complacent with each dive despite heading into the final with a 129.20 point lead. 

“I’m feeling excited but also a little bit exhausted. The team and I have had a lot of competitions prior to this one to get more experience,” said Rousseau. 

“Despite my lead I am always trying to push out the best dives that I can. I never once was too comfortable in my diving, I just wanted to get more experience with each of these dives before Paris.” 

Locals were given a fairytale ending with South Australian local Jaxon Bowshire’s performance enough to see him nominated for  the second quota position in the Men’s 10-Metre Platform for the Australian Olympic Team. Paris will mark an Olympic debut for Bowshire. 

“It’s been a wild ride to get here but I'm really happy with that result,” said Bowshire after the final. 

“I tried to avoid looking at the scores because I knew the pressure would be alot if I did take notice so it was scary to know it was going to be close.

“To have my friends and family here made a difference, hearing the cheers before and after the dive was great support.”

With two quota positions available for the Women’s 3-Metre Springboard, Maddison Keeney (WA) delivered a decisive performance to take out the Australian title. Keeney, who has already secured her ticket to Paris 2024 for the Women’s 3-Metre Synchronised event, has now also  earned the opportunity to also represent Australia in the individual event. 

“I was actually surprised with how nervous I was today because individual 3-Metre is my pet event and I know I can do really well, so I would’ve been really disappointed if I didn’t put myself in the best position to qualify for this one,” said Keeney. 

It went down to the wire for second place with only 0.55 points separating the minor placings  after the final dive. 

Queensland’s 22 year old Alysha Koloi and 24 years old Georgia Sheehan battled it out for the chance to make their Olympic debut with Koloi eventually prevailing. 

“I am so overwhelmed. I never look at scores and I just need to focus on one dive at a time so I didn’t know how close it was,” said Koloi after the nail biting finish. 

“I’ve dreamt of this moment since I was five years old and I still don’t have the words but it really means everything to me. 

“To potentially make my Olympic debut alongside Maddi (Keeney) who is my diving inspiration is amazing, I am so grateful for the help and support she gives me.” 

The Men’s 3-Metre Springboard saw 25 year old Kurtis Mathews (NSW) tough it out with Tokyo 2020 Olympian Shixin Li (SA) for the title and the one quota position on offer. Mathews' final score of 1402.15 prevailed over Li, defeating the 36 year old by 98.5 points. 

The result has put Mathews on the path to book his ticket to his first Olympic Games.

“It was nice to have the result after a consistent performance. I’d like to say congratulations to all competitors, it was a wonderful event,” said Mathews. 

“I had a perfect preparation for this competition, a wonderful block of strength and conditioning and was training on the 3-Metre every day. I had no injuries or sickness so really couldn’t have asked for a better preparation. 

“To top it off I came into this event very mentally strong and that was probably my biggest asset today.

“I’ve worked my whole career towards this result, it was the final competition I needed to check off to open the door for selection, I’m very excited for Australian Team nominations,” he said.

The Australian Olympic Committee will now announce the diving team for Paris 2024 in the coming weeks following the completion of the selection process. 

All results for 2024 Australian Open Championships including Nomination Trials can be found here.