Orlando Duque started the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2011 the way he ended 2010: the Colombian’s bid to recapture past glory not derailed by a training crash in Cali nor the threat of a possible tsunami.
Dominant and determined, the 36-year-old nine-time world champion refocused to deliver one of his most accomplished World Series performances in one of the most remote corners of the globe: Chile’s Rapa Nui.
'I came out of the water, saw the judges' scores and, yeah, that was just how it felt!' – Duque
In the first of seven competitions, Duque, victorious in Hawaii for the last stop of 2010, laid it all on the line despite suffering from a possible hairline fracture of his ribs following an accident in his native Colombia and also missing the opportunity to train the day before to begin his quest to regain the title lost to Englishman Gary Hunt.
“It’s the challenge with our sport that sometimes you just have to pull it out and put everything into one day. You can do six months preparing the same way but then something like a possible tsunami happens and you have to go back to what you used to do and be ready for that one day," said Duque.
In an exciting first competition featuring four rounds and a total of 45 dives, 2010 Champion Hunt and perennial challenger Artem Silchenko remained in contention until the final but mistakes from both put Duque, last up on the 27-metre high platform, firmly in the driving seat.
The Colombian still had to hit his final dive, a reverse double somersault with four twists.
“I felt a little bit of pressure at the end because you hear the other scores and you know you’re leading and they’ve made a little bit of a mistake. I felt that for a second or two but then I had to focus on the dive.
"In the take-off, I felt really, really good and as I came out of the dive and looked at the water and then hit the water it was like ‘wow, that felt nice!’ I came out of the water, saw the judges’ scores and, yeah, that was just how it felt!”
Duque surfaced to see the judges award a first ‘10’ of 2011.
Silchenko, in second, and Hunt, in third, completed the first podium of the season, meanwhile. Of the three new faces, World Series rookies Jorge Ferzuli and Steven Lobue impressed the most finishing seventh and eighth respectively, while Sacha Kutsenko took 10th.
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