One of the world’s oldest extreme sports came to one of its oldest cities for the first time Sunday.
Red Bull’s Cliff Diving series, now in its 11th year, brought the superstars of the cliff diving world to Pigeon Rocks, in Beirut’s Raouche. Participants leaped, twisted and somersaulted off the limestone outcrop into the sea below for a chance to win the coveted King Kahekili trophy, named for the Hawaiian chief credited with the birth of cliff diving.
As part of the Red Bull World Series, athletes travel the globe, hurling themselves off cliffs into oceans and rivers in Europe, the Middle East and other parts of Asia.
Beirut marked the fifth stop on the 2019 tour, which already passed through the Philippines, Ireland, Italy and Portugal.
In Lebanon, platforms were set up on the side of the rock formation, and divers jumped from as high as 27 meters into the sea below.
The judges scored the divers on the difficulty of the acrobatic moves they completed midair and the gracefulness of their entry into the sea.
Gary Hunt of the United Kingdom, who has won the series seven times before, seems poised to continue his winning streak after maintaining his place at the top of this year’s leaderboard.
“I feel elated, very happy,” he said.
At the same time, he said that conditions were “not easy.”
“We had to eliminate one out of the four rounds of diving because it was so rough, and we even had to zip-line across to the rock because the boats couldn’t come and pick us up,” he said.
In the women’s competition, Rhiannon Iffland from Australia earned her fifth win of the series, bumping her up to first place.
“I feel ecstatic. It was a bit challenging with the sea conditions, so to overcome that and put in an awesome performance and a personal best was more than anything I could have asked for,” Iffland said.
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For Iffland, the 30 minutes leading up to the dive are the most stressful. “To cope, I try and think of nothing and block out the negative thoughts,” she said.
The divers also conveyed their excitement that Beirut was chosen as a host city for this year’s series.
“When we dive off a rock formation like that, we are in the middle of nowhere. It feels quite strange to look up to the city, but it’s a super nice experience to dive from there,” Iffland said.
Hunt, whose win Sunday came during his first dive in Lebanon, said one of the best things about cliff diving was getting to visit new countries.
“I’m so excited to be in Beirut,” said Eleonor Townsend Smart of the United States, another of the divers participating in the series.
For her, the competition was not just about moving up the leaderboard but also about protecting the world’s natural dive sites.
Three days before the competition, Smart organized a cleanup of the rocks that collected over 100 bags of rubbish.
“I wanted to use the sport as a platform to highlight an issue,” she said. “We like to do a cleanup wherever we go, to give back to the local place that is hosting our dives.”
A large audience gathered along the Corniche to watch the World Series’ inaugural Lebanon round.
Tiana Madi, who is Australian Lebanese and also a diver, watched from the seaside promenade, and said she was excited to see fellow Aussie Iffland win.
“I’ve never seen a proper competition like this before. It was good,” she said. “Australia is No. 1 for me and they won, so I’m happy.”
Nicolas Farhat, a Beirut local, said that “it was great to see the event at such a historic monument. It’s great experience for Lebanon.”
The anticipation for the rest of the series was palpable among the divers, as they prepared to travel to yet more of the world’s best locations. The next stop on the tour is Mostar, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, before they finish off the series in Bilboa, Spain.
“I’m excited for the rest of the series. It’s cliff diving, it’s always exciting. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it,” Hunt said.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
