FEATURE

Four-midable Gary Hunt takes the crown in Denmark

By quattro media

4th stop of the 2015 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series produce season’s second English-Colombian podium this Saturday. The Danish weather may change from hail to bright sunshine in the space of just five minutes, but there is nothing that can faze cliff diving’s reigning champion, Gary Hunt, as he won the fourth World Series stop in a row in Copenhagen. In front of 35,000 spectators, the Brit (511.60pts) finished ahead of compatriot Blake Aldridge (476.85pts) and cliff diving legend Orlando Duque (463.60pts) to take the win from the 28m-platform on the Opera House. Halfway through the season, it is these three athletes who have dominated the podium in the four World Series events and they are out in front in the overall standings.

A model of cliff diving consistency this year, the 31-year-old World Series record winner added another victory to his collection this weekend, his first one in Denmark. And just like in the season’s second stop in La Rochelle, France, the athletes from England made it a double, as former Olympian Blake Aldridge performed the sport’s hardest dive with a Degree of Difficulty of 6.3 for 8s and 8.5s from the judges to take second place. And it is the sport’s most experienced athlete and the winner of 13 cliff diving world titles, Orlando Duque, from Colombia, who completed the podium in Denmark making it his fourth topthree result in as many competitions, despite being one full point of difficulty behind his dominant rival from England.

While the Danish podium was occupied by some of the sport’s most well-known faces, Russia’s Artem Silchenko (12th) – who won here in 2013 with the highest-scoring dive to date – did not even reach the final of the top eight after losing his head-to-head battle against wildcard diver Anatoliy Shabotenko. Just like the season’s fourth podium finisher, David Colturi (9th), whose difficult diving programme was not enough to beat Mexican Jonathan Paredes’ diving grace.

With four out of eight stops complete, the overall standings show Gary Hunt’s dominance with another maximum haul of 200 points in Copenhagen. Orlando Duque (2nd, 550pts.) and Blake Aldridge (3rd, 520pts) are the athletes who have managed to stay closest to the four-time World Series winner. The youngest athletes on tour, the USA’s David Colturi (400pts) and Mexico’s Jonathan Paredes (289pts), complete the current top-five.

After the year’s most northerly venue, the World Series returns to the Portuguese Azores archipelago in four weeks' time for a spectacular off-the-cliff competition where both men and women will show their three-second freefalls at speeds of up to 85kph.

QUOTES FROM THE TOP-THREE

Gary Hunt (UK)
This win’s a good one because I wasn’t feeling especially confident when I got here. I didn’t do any dives in the first training session, which is rare for me. I was gradually gaining confidence here as every day passed. What keeps me performing at this level? Popping the champagne on the podium’s pretty nice!

Seriously, I love what I’m doing. It would be crazy not to try and win every event. I’m loving the position that I’m in. I’ve been training hard for it – it’s a passion for me and that’s not going to change. To others it may seem like there’s no stopping me, but the next competition is the Azores... I didn’t even make the final there last year, so I’ve got some unfinished business with that event.

Blake Aldridge (UK)
I’m really happy – to do four dives, including the hardest dive in the world, and not drop below 8 or 8.5 is great for me. That’s what my focus has been on. Putting my big dive in for 8.5 relaxed me for the final dive. Obviously carrying an injury, and not doing much training here, I stood up there for a back triple triple with quite a lot of pressure on me. But I just feel in a different mental place to where I have been in previous years. To stand up there and feel confident and be sure in your ability and yourself is a much better place to be than to be doubting yourself. Standing up there for my final dive I was just telling myself ‘make sure you go for it!‘. In the past I’ve been in a good position and have had that dive to finish on, like in Norway last year, and I didn’t go for it. The worst feeling in the world is when you have that
chance and you don’t go for it.

Orlando Duque (COL)
The Degree of Difficulty for sure is holding me back. I’ve always focused on quality, rather than difficulty, that’s been my strategy forever. I know that I can do more difficult dives, but they’re not going to be for high scores – and that’s not how I want to compete. Gary (Hunt) is a full point of DD ahead of me and that’s a big difference. But he’s also diving great, and that makes it even more difficult. I could have done better with my last dive today and might have made second. But I’m fairly happy with what I’ve got. Third place against all the guys, and the way they’re performing, is not too bad right now. I keep talking about putting pressure on Gary, but it seems like nothing fazes him. That said, it’s great to see a diver take the sport to that level – if you asked any other high diver if that was possible they would have said no, but
he’s doing it.







Video:  Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2015 – Event Clip – Copenhagen, Denmark



Results Stop 4, Copenhagen
1. Gary Hunt | UK | 511.60pts.
2. Blake Aldridge | UK | 476.85
3. Orlando Duque | COL | 463.60
4. Jonathan Paredes | MEX | 435.70
5. Michal Navratil | CZE | 411.70
6. Steven LoBue | USA | 405.85
7. Andy Jones | USA | 399.75
8. Anatoliy Shabotenko (wildcard) | UKR | 396.30
9. David Colturi | USA | 292.80
10. Kris Kolanus (wildcard) | 289.55
11. Todor Spasov (wildcard) | BUL | 282.30
12. Artem Silchenko | RUS | 264.70
13. Alain Kohl (wildcard) | LUX | 238.55
14. Jucelino Junior | BRA | 212.40