La Rochelle, Yucatán and Kragerø – the World Series has reached its midway point and Briton Gary Hunt is the man of the 2010 season so far. With the maximum haul of points he stands out from the rest. Bright sunshine and more than 12,000 spectators on boats and ships crowding the Skagerrak strait in Norway’s summer hot spot on Saturday afternoon cheered the cliff diving elite to deliver peak performances.
17 points ahead of his nearest rival, and not giving away a single point after three out of six stops, the 26-year-old has three reasons to feel safe in his leading position: “I’ve very recently come from 10m Olympic-style diving and I think that makes my form a little tighter. The consistency this year has been much better. It’s been a great start for me, it couldn’t have gone better, but there’s still three competitions left. It’s not in the bag just yet and I’m going to play around with a new dive in the next competition so let’s see how that goes.” After another battle for the podium today, Artem Silchenko (RUS) and Orlando Duque (COL), separated by only one point, are fighting for the second overall position. With another second place the Russian further underlined his claims to be number one: “I beat Orlando who’s a great diver but I lose to Gary. Second place is good but I want to win and I can do it, I know it.”
The competition for the top six has never been so tight, only 0.05 point dividing positions 7 and 8, 1.5 points between rank 7 and 9. Forced by the new format the athletes have to take out their most difficult dives already in round two. Out of twelve participants Alain Kohl (LUX), ranked on a personal best 4th today, is the ninth to reach the top six and gives striking proof of the World Series’ claim of having the world’s best high divers.
1,000 spectators for each athlete – the divers’ view from the 26.8m platform on the skerry could hardly have been more impressive. Thousands of boats on the water and spectators along the shoreline turned the picturesque Kragerø archipelago into a floating arena.
From a solid rock in the Oslo fjord, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series heads to southern Italy for the next stop in Polignano a Mare on August 8.
Results Stop 3 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, Kragerø (NOR)
1. Gary Hunt | GBR | 386.45 pts
2. Artem Silchenko | RUS | 355,15 pts
3. Orlando Duque | COL | 342.20 pts
4. Alain Kohl | LUX | 307.65 pts
5. Steve Black | AUS | 302.55 pts
6. Slava Polyeshchuk | UKR | 265.50 pts
7. Magnus Vigeland | MEX | 196.85 pts
8. Hassan Mouti | FRA | 195.40 pts
9. Michal Navratil | CZE | 195.35 pts
10. Kent de Mond | USA | 185.20 pts
11. Eber Pava | COL | 182.60 pts
12. Andrey Ignatenko | UKR | 180.95 pts
13. Cyrille Oumedjkane | FRA | 166.40 pts
Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010. The world’s best divers, six challenging competitions and 26 metres between take off and hitting the water smoothly, via athletic perfection. A selection of famous and well-known diving spots, as well as extraordinary natural and challenging urban venues, have been chosen. Occurring for the second year, the share between known and new locations is 50-50. Starting on May 15 in La Rochelle (FRA), the series took a leap over the Atlantic Ocean to Mexico (Yucatán) and came back to Europe for competitions in Norway (Kragerø), Italy (Polignano a Mare) and Switzerland (Sisikon), before reaching the land of the sport’s origin, Hawaii (Hilo), on September 12 for the grand final.
Red Bull Cliff Diving competitions are judged by five international jurors with scores awarded according to the degree of difficulty and the execution of the dive.
