FEATURE

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2015 kicks off in Colombia – Who will win at the "undisputed queen of the Caribbean coast"?

By quattro media

Colombia’s Cartagena hosts Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series season-opener on April 25, 2015. Orlando Duque, the cliff diving legend from Colombia, and 13 of his most talented competitors are ready to take on the incredible 27m drop from the roof of the Convention Center into the waters of Cartagena, known locally as La Heroica. The beautiful seaside city, surrounded by 400- year-old city walls, has resisted numerous pirate attacks just to fall for the complex 3-second manoeuvres of the cliff divers. It’s a brand-new season and the athletes are coming back from six months of dedicated training with a host of new awe-inducing dives – at 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon a huge crowd of Duque devotees will witness their hero’s performance on home soil for the very first time.

Two new dives, increased difficulty and an improved quality in the first training session of the year from 27 metres shows that the likes of the ‘Brilliant Brit’ Gary Hunt, Russia’s graceful Artem Silchenko and the sport’s figurehead, Orlando Duque, are on top of their game. “It’s awesome to be here in Colombia,” the 12-time world-title holder states, “the organisers have been looking around for a location for many years and we were looking around until we found this place. The weather’s great and the location couldn’t be better. We hope there’s going to be a big crowd, and I couldn’t be more proud to start the World Series at home. My whole family are going to be watching me for the first time. My mum’s never seen me dive, I
think only my sister has seen me cliff dive, so it’s great that I get to show my work and share it with them.”

For the season’s very first dives from almost three times the Olympic height – after training from a maximum of only 10 metres during the winter – the cliff diving elite has arrived in the emblematic city of Cartagena de Indias, located in the north of Colombia and visited by thousands of tourists from around the world. Full of invaluable artistic and cultural heritage, Cartagena is a city well known for its history linked to pirates and will add a memorable new chapter to its books by hosting the season-opener of cliff diving’s most prestigious series of competitions.

Six months after the coronation of four-time World Series champion Gary Hunt at the grand final in Mexico, 10 of the world's best cliff divers and four wildcards will again be diving from 27 metres-high in their bid for glory on the afternoon of April 25; the Convention Center of Cartagena, usually a place to welcome assemblies and summits, opens its doors to welcome 14 cliff divers who will delight spectators with their aerial tricks and high-speed dives from a 27-metre platform.

Photo credit:  © Red Bull Media House













Video: Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2015 - Teaser - Cartagena, Colombia