HIGH DIVING – THE biggest global stars in the sport of high diving have begun to arrive in the kingdom ahead of the season-opening stop of the World Aquatics High Diving World Cup 2024.
The prestigious event takes place Saturday and Sunday at a special location along Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) in Manama.
It will be held under the patronage of Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
The official opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday evening at 7pm at the competition venue.
Fans are welcome to attend both days of the meeting and enjoy the exciting high diving action. It will be the first time ever that a leading international high-diving competition is being held in the kingdom. It follows an agreement between the BOC and World Aquatics, aquatic sports’ international governing body, to bring the exciting sport to the island.
It is not only set to be the maiden high diving event in Bahrain, but it will also be the kingdom’s first-ever World Aquatics competition.
The BOC announced yesterday that tickets for the event are free of charge and they can be booked online through the link available on BOC’s official Instagram page @bahrainolympic.
The Bahrain stop on this year’s World Aquatics High Diving World Cup is being held in cooperation with GFH Financial Group.
Competition on Saturday begins from 9am with the women’s preliminary round. They will be diving from a 20-metre platform. The men’s preliminaries follow from 11.30am later that morning. The men will be competing from a platform 27 metres high.
That will set the stage for the women’s semi-finals on Sunday morning, also from 9am, to be followed directly by the finals at 9.40am. The men’s semis will be held from 11.30am, with the finals set for 12.15pm.
World Aquatics has named the top three participants for both women and men amongst the star-studded field of around 40 athletes entered.
The women include four-time world champion and three-time world cup gold-medallist Rhiannan Iffland of Australia, two-time world silver-medallist and former world cup gold-medallist Molly Carlson of Canada, and world cup bronze-medallist Ellie Smart of the US.
Amongst the men are former world champion and world cup winner Constantin Popovici of Romania, reigning world champion and world cup winner Aidan Heslop of Great Britain, and silver-medallist from both the world championship and world cup Catalin-Petru Preda, also of Romania.
Sixteen nations from across the globe are being represented in the event.
The World Aquatics High Diving World Cup 2024 stop in Bahrain serves as a qualification event for the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore next year. This first leg of the season will be followed by another event in Brazil, scheduled to take place from October 11 to 13.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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