Big heights, big emotions. Tomorrow,
18 August, the high diving competition kicks off, taking place at the Foro
Italico courts 1 and 2, next to the Tennis Club, where the Italian Tennis Open
are held every year. The platform is 30 metres high and the pool has a base of
17x17m and is 6m deep. There are two platforms from which athletes dive: one
that is 27 metres for men, the other one, for women, is 20 metres high. For the
first time high diving is included in an European championships programme
There will be 8 women and 22 men competing,
30 athletes in total, from 12 different nations. The youngest one is
18-year-old Italy's Andrea Barnabà, while the most experienced the 40-year-old
Ukrainian Kolesnikov Viacheslav. The men's and women's medals will be awarded
at the end of four sets of dives: compulsory, optional (twice) and
intermediate. The women's medal ceremony will take place on August 19, and the
men's on the 20.
However, the diving show will not end
on Saturday night. On Sunday 21 August there will be the first edition of the Nations
Cup, a world competition created in Rome in order to include all the athletes
of the high diving circuit. The event will be free entry and it will take place
from 14:00 to 16:00. The rules state that teams should consist of two athletes
of the same gender from the same nation, or mixed pairs of one male and one
female athlete. All competing pairs will perform one compulsory and one
optional individual dive, from 27 metres for the men and from 20 metres for the
women, plus a synchronised dive from the 20m platform. The dives will be judged
by an international panel of five to seven competition judges. Several stars of
the world circuit are expected in Rome for the competition, such as USA's David
Colturi and Andy Jones, Mexico's Jonathan Paredes and Sergio Guzman, and
Colombian pair Miguel Garcia and Maria Paula Quintero. European athletes
include France's Gary Hunt and Robin Georges, Italy's Alessandro De Rose and
Andrea Barnabà, and Ukraine's Antonina Vishyvanova and Anna Bakunovitska.
The most highly anticipated athletes
At Roma 2022 the most anticipated
athletes are French world champion Gary Hunt, world silver medallist Czech
Republic's Michal Navratil, Italy's Alessandro De Rose and Germany's Anna
Bader, with the latter two being both world bronze medallists. "It will be
amazing, hosting the first high diving European championship at home and
competing here is an indescribable emotion, I can only say that being up there
will be beautiful and with this audience even more so," Alessandro De Rose
said.
Photos Giorgio Perottino /
Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto Use of photographs is only permitted for
publications registered for editorial purposes. Credits must be mentioned.
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