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Ukrainian Wins Red Bull Cliff Diving Competition

It was an ideal start for Andrey Ignatenko (UKR) and the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series 2009 on May 8th in France.

Andrey Ignatenko (UKR) is the winner of the first Red Bull Cliff Diving Series 2009 event. He defeated nine times world champion Orlando Duque (COL) and Gary Hunt (GBR) in a thrilling competition.

A cheering crowd of 30,000 spectators welcomed the world’s best high divers at the series’ kick off event in the French city of La Rochelle on May 8th.

Diving from a 27.5m platform in windy conditions and 16°C cold water challenged the 13 participants to compete at the highest sportive level.

Without a single training dive, the Ukrainian felt most comfortable with the enormous height of 27.5m and took the lead right after the second round of the competition. The 44 year old from Kiev showed three excellently performed dives and earned the highest overall score of 317.3 points.

“I am really happy with this victory! I feel well prepared even without diving from more than five meters for training reasons. It’s part of my preparation to watch the other athletes during training, but I only high dive in the main competition. The six weeks until the next stop will be hard for me as I am looking forward to it," said Andrey.

Orlando Duque from Colombia (307.65) and youngster Gary Hunt from Great Britain (298.95) were relegated to second and third place. Boats, window sills and roof tops as well as all streets around the ancient port of La Rochelle served as platforms for the enthusiastic audience.

Motivated by their countrymen’s 60,000 clapping hands the French divers Hassan Mouti and Cyrille Oumedjkane excelled their expectations and used the two hours time slot between high and low tide to prove their excellent high diving skills. However, the oldest diver in the field of participants was unbeatable and outscored all his contenders.

Wild card diver Laurent Fischer (FRA) had a hard landing in the last round and remained uninjured. The idyllic Gallic city at the Bay of Biscay was the location for the first ever cliff diving competition held in France and the emblematic Saint Nicolas Tower – a former point of defense and a jail – the perfect take off spot for the divers’ aesthetic three seconds flight. The location for the next tour stop will be Rotterdam (NED) on June 20th.

 

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