Barcelona failure propels Hunt to victory
Print Edition
STANDING on a platform high above the Kazanka River, Gary Hunt was desperate not to blow it this time.
He didn’t.
Unlike two years ago at the last world championships in Barcelona, when a poor final dive from Hunt turned a 38-point lead into a 0.9-point deficit, and a gold medal into silver, the British diver held on to take the title yesterday.
“That stuck with me. I had to live with that for two years,” he said of his 2013 defeat.
When readying for his last dive yesterday off the 27-meter board in Kazan, “I just told myself, ‘Don’t do it again’.”
The last dive, a triple somersault with 3-1/2 twists, wasn’t the best dive of the competition, but it didn’t need to be. With a 33-point lead, avoiding disaster was what mattered.
Scoring 139.20 points on his last dive, with a slightly less than perfect entry into the water, Hunt took the gold medal with a total score of 629.30.
Jonathan Paredes of Mexico, who won bronze in 2013, was second on 596.45, while Artyom Silchenko of Russia pleased the crowd with bronze on 593.45.
Hunt’s huge lead left his rivals feeling they were in a separate competition, Paredes said. “This medal means a lot to me. Today, we were not fighting for gold, we were fighting for the silver.”
US diver David Colturi was in silver-medal position after the first three rounds, but slipped to fourth. Attempting the most difficult dive of any of the 12 finalists in the last round, he landed awkwardly and finished seven points behind Silchenko.
Defending champion Orlando Duque of Colombia was 11th after Monday’s first three rounds, but finished sixth with the highest score of the final round, a 151.20-point dive.
High diving’s second appearance at the world aquatics championships is a key showcase for a young but rapidly growing sport keen to follow in the footsteps of other extreme sports to have joined the Olympics in recent years.
After his win, Hunt predicted “it’s only a matter of time” before high diving joins the Olympic program, but his optimism was not shared by Julio Maglione, chief of FINA, the world aquatics federation that would need to propose high diving to the International Olympic Committee.
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