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Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series championship in Hilo

Composite photo of a dive at the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010. Photography by Baron Sekiya | Hawaii 24/7

Composite photo of Artem Silchenko diving at Kawainui Falls during the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010. Photo illustration by Baron Sekiya | Hawaii 24/7

Duque takes the Hawaii title; Hunt takes the world series

Karin Stanton | Hawaii 24/7 Contributing Editor

World Champion Gary Hunt

World Champion Gary Hunt

In its first stop in Hawaii, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series put on a show with some real wings.

Twelve of the world’s best flipped, twisted, spun and splashed to the delight of some 800 spectators Sunday, Sept. 12 at Kawainui Falls in Hilo.

The sixth and final competition of the world series featured 12 divers from nine countries and 36 of the most amazing acrobatic feats the Big Island has seen in awhile.

Although the world champion title was pretty well wrapped up by Gary Hunt coming into the Hilo event, there were still valuable points and the Hawaii trophy up for grabs.

Hunt, a 26-year-old former show diver from England, managed to hang on for the world title, but the hometown crowd was most certainly behind Orlando Duque.

The 36-year-old Colombia native who now calls Oahu home, put on an awesome display of aerial acrobatics, scored the most points on the day and earned another accolade.

Duque, who celebrated his birthday the day before the competition, said he was delighted to win in Hawaii.

Orlando Duque

“It’s nice to compete here at home. It make it that much better,” Duque said. “My birthday, we were practicing a little bit, but today maybe I will have a celebration.”

Duque also praised his competitors.

“It’s not so many times that guys come along and take over like that,” he said. “But Gary did that.”

Duque said the day in Hilo was special.

“It was good. I completed some good dives. He did, too. Just he made some mistakes. That will always happen,” Duque said.

“Today I had three good dives; he maybe made one mistake,” Duque said. “It goes that way sometimes.”

Hunt said he doesn’t fret about pressure; he thrives on it.

World Champion Gary Hunt celebrates with a bottle of champange.

“There’s always a bit of nerves. But as soon as I go, the nerves go,” he said. “I like diving under pressure. It always makes me dive better.”

Hunt said he was thrilled to take the crown from Duque in Hawaii.

“It’s incredible. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. I wasn’t too pleased with my final dive, but I’m glad it was enough,” he said.

“You always know if you make a mistake, it’s gonna hurt,” Hunt said. “But I had some nice dives and the water felt fresh.”

The event certainly was a boost to the Hilo economy over the last couple of weeks.

Ryan Snyder, Red Bull communications manager, said a crew of 10 t0 20 people arrived up to two weeks ago and the full production needed 50-60 people, including many hired locally in Hilo.

Snyder said the idea to bring the event to Hawaii was born about 18 months ago, with the site picked and prep work beginning back in February.

The event drew 40-45 media representatives from about 30 outlets, Snyder said. TV crews were on hand from the U.S., U.K., Mexico, Brazil and other nations.

Because the Hawaii event was staged on private property, the number of spectators was limited. About 600 spectators were invited, plus another 200 organizers, media, support staff and security.

Over in the family corral, Gwen DeMond can’t help but watch.

“I just loved it. I usually can’t stand up for very long, but I stayed right in there,” said Kent’s grandma.

Gwen DeMond

Gwen DeMond

Gwen DeMond, 92 (and proud of it) traveled from Palm Springs to watch Kent, her grandson compete.

“It was fabulous, absolutely fantastic. I could not take my eyes off them. Usually I can’t stand that long, but I stayed standing for all of this,” DeMond said.

“I never saw him do to so I didn’t know how I would feel,” she said. “I only ever saw him on the Internet, so I never got a whole feel for it. I just loved it. It was fabulous.”

Hilo resident Michaela Beck said she was blown away that these extreme athletes throw themselves off cliffs and hit the water at something upwards of 55 mph.

“I’ve never seen something like that. Especially not into a waterfall. It’s … well, wow,” she said.

Although she does not participate in water sports, Beck said she would love to see Hilo be a regular tour stop.

“Of course, this is something really big, especially for Hilo. They should have it here in Hawaii every year,” she said. “Because, you know, this is the place where they got the whole cliff diving.”


Photography by Baron Sekiya | Hawaii 24/7

Hilo, Hawaii Stop Results

1 Orlando Duque COL 396.90 pts
2 Gary Hunt GBR 387.30 pts
3 Artem Silchenko RUS 380.10 pts
4 Eber Pava COL 303.90 pts
5 Kent De Mond USA 281.45 pts
6 Michal Navratil CZE 251.40 pts
B-Final
7 Steve Black AUS 301.05 pts
8 Slava Polyeshchuk UKR 299.50 pts
9 Hassan Mouti FRA 280.90 pts
10 Alain Kohl LUX 274.50 pts
11 Cyrille Oumedjkane FRA 273.90 pts
12 Andrey Ignatenko UKR 86.40 pts

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series Final Standings

1 Gary Hunt GBR 109
2 Orlando Duque COL 94
3 Artem Silchenko RUS 80
4 Kent De Mond USA 56
5 Hassan Mouti FRA 41
6 Steve Black AUS 38
7 Eber Pava COL 34
7 Alain Kohl LUX 34
9 Michal Navratil CZE 32
10 Cyrille Oumedjkane FRA 25
11 Slava Polyeshchuk UKR 23
12 Andrey Ignatenko UKR 7

— Find out more: www.redbull.com/cs/Satellite/en_INT/World-Series/Cliffdiving-Page/001238874343857

MEDIA RELEASE

After more than 20,000 miles travelled, almost 200 three-second flights and 17,263.45 points awarded, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010 held its final showdown at the Kawainui Falls on Sept. 12.

In a spine-tingling competition, reigning World Series champion and Oahu resident Orlando Duque took his first season victory in front of the divers’ friends and families but handed over the overall title to Gary Hunt. This year’s dominator, Hunt took four out of six wins and stole the crown from Colombia to England.

Five podiums preceded Orlando’s first victory, and when returning home to his island state, nine-time world champion Orlando Duque finally beat all 11 competitors of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010.

One day after his 36th birthday and almost one year and three months after his last victory in Italy in 2009, the Colombian made himself an eagerly awaited present: “I guess you could call it a present. They were three good dives of mine and I’m happy that I got the win. This has definitely been my best competition. I did really good dives today and finally managed to put together a good competition. It helped that Gary made two small mistakes so I was able to overtake him, but it’s definitely my best competition this year. All the locations we went to were special, but this has got to be the best one for me. Winning here at home in Hawaii makes it for me. My plan is to win the title back next year. I will practice a lot, get back to the gym and do my homework. But Gary’s going to do the same.”

Artem Silchenko from Russia made for the competition’s only two 10’s in his third dive and, after a last place in round one, secured himself not only the third place in the final competition but also third in the overall rankings.

9.6 points behind Duque, 26-year-old Gary Hunt finished the Hawaii series stop in second place and – only one point away from the overall title before this stop – was finally confirmed as the series’ overall winner.

“It’s great, I’m speechless. I only had to do one dive to get the title but now it’s really starting to sink in. It’s not just Orlando, Artem has shown his strength throughout the series. There’s also Kent who’s working on new dives and is trying to improve. I’m going to be working on my running take-off. That is now my aim in the off-season to perfect that take-off and use it next year,” said the emotionally moved Brit.

The grand finale of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010 was hosted in the sport’s birthplace of Hawaii. In the remoteness of a privately owned waterfall, the top six athletes in the overall rankings automatically qualify for the 2011 series.

The bottom six will be required to re-qualify against up-and-coming divers hoping to make their own mark.

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