HIGH DIVING – THE season-opening leg of the World Aquatics High Diving World Cup 2024 kicked off last night with a glittering opening ceremony held at the event’s venue at Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) in Manama.
Supreme Council for Youth and Sport (SCYS) first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman, and Bahrain Olympic Committee president (BOC) Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa was in attendance at the inauguration, as were World Aquatics president and Olympic Council of Asia director general Dr Husain Al Musallam, BOC secretary general Faris Al Kooheji, BOC executive director and event director Ahmed Abdulghaffar, top officials from Bahrain and World Aquatics as well as guests.
“We are very excited to host the World Aquatics High Diving World Cup for the first time,” Abdulghaffar told the GDN. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We’ve been planning over nine months and we are very happy to have all the athletes here.”
The event is being held under the patronage of His Majesty King Hamad’s representative for humanitarian work and youth affairs and SCYS chairman Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa. It acts as a qualifier for the World Aquatics Championships, which is set for next year in Singapore.
A second leg of the high diving world cup will be taking place in Brazil from October 11 to 13.
Nearly 40 of the world’s best high divers are in the kingdom. Amongst the women are 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.
The men are spearheaded by 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.
“All the elite high divers in the world are in Bahrain,” Abdulghaffar said. “They are ready to compete for their spot in the world championships in 2025, and are ready to show us tremendous dives and attempt new tricks.
“Everybody is excited to be here to kick off their season and give a great performance.”
Action begins today at 9am with women’s preliminary round.
The women will be diving off a 20-metre platform, while the men will be diving from 27m.
The event’s location at BFH will see high diving’s top global stars put on a show with Manama’s beautiful skyline providing a stunning visual backdrop.
Tickets to the event have completely sold out, and Abdulghaffar expressed his delight with the tremendous interest for this first-of-its-kind occasion in Bahrain.
“We were surprised by how fast this event sold out,” Abdulghaffar said. “We know that high diving is new to the region and it is not like the regular kind of diving.
“Diving off 20 metres and 27 metres takes a special type of talent.”
Also at last night’s ceremony, Shaikh Khalid honoured the event’s sponsoring companies in appreciation of their contributions to the success of the kingdom’s high diving spectacle.
The participating high divers have been performing practice dives over the past two days at the venue as part of the final lead-up to competition.
Meanwhile, the official technical meeting took place yesterday at Charthouse Bahrain, attended by Abdulghaffar along with several technical officials from World Aquatics and the participating delegations and their high divers.
Amongst the other elite women competing in the kingdom are Xantheia Pennisi of Australia, Simone Leathead of Canada, Annika Bornebusch of Denmark, Madeleine Bayon of France, Anna Bader of Germany, Elisa Cosetti of Italy, Alejandra Sofia Aguilar Tovar of Mexico, Ginni Van Katwijk of the Netherlands, Morgane Herculano of Switzerland, and Kaylea Arnett, Meili Carpenter, and Maya Kelly of the US.
Completing the men’s field are Zach Picton of Australia, Michael Foisy and Francois Imbeau-Dulac of Canada, Carlos Gimeno of Spain, Davide Baraldi and Andrea Barnaba of Italy, Braden Rumpit of New Zealand, Jean-David Duval and Pierrick Schafer of Switzerland, and Oleksiy Prygorov of Ukraine, while from the US are David Colturi, Matt Cooper, Scott Lazeroff, and James Lichtenstein, and from Mexico are Antonio Corzo Diaz, Sergio Guzman, Yoloti Otniel Martinez Cabral, and Jonathan Paredes.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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