September 12, 2010 – Hilo, Hawaii

Video by David Corrigan

The champions were crowned in the final of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2010, which ended its world tour in Hawaii, where the sport began.

Columbia’s Orlando Duque – who now lives in Hawaii – won the day’s competition with 396.90 pts, but it was not enough to overtake Great Britain’s Gary Hunt in the final standings.

Hunt finished first overall (109), with Duque taking second (94) and Russia’s Artem Silchenko (80) in third.

At the final event held a few miles outside of Hilo, Hawaii at the scenic Kawainui Falls, Hunt and Silchenko finished second and third with 387.30 pts and 380.10 pts, respectively.

The short video above is a compilation of the five best dives on the day (editor’s choice of course – chosen by degree of difficulty, audience reaction and judges score) and just so happen to feature the three finalists of the day and of the world series.

From the event media relations:

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 Hawaii’s Big Island on September 12. In a spine-tingling competition, reigning World Series champion and O’ahu-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 eleven 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 today’s 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,” says 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.

Big Island Video News will have more on this world class event in the coming days.

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