Abu Dhabi: Britain’s top diver Gary Hunt made high diving look so effortless with a masterclass en route to defending his title in the FINA High Diving World Cup here on Saturday.

Hunt started from where he had left after two rounds. His third dive was as clinical as his previous ones and the cumulative score from all the seven judges was 97.3 and that swelled his aggregate total to 303.

All eyes were on United States’ Steve LoBue, who trailed Hunt by less than a point, going into the final two rounds.

If anyone could end Hunt’s dominance, it was LoBue but the American’s inward three somersault and half twist, in round three, put him 9.9 points behind Hunt.

In the final round, LoBue piled on the pressure with a score of 112.20 for a grand total of 405.30 but Hunt stayed ice cool as always. His score of 140.40 which also included a 10 on 10 from a judge was enough to swell his tally to 443.40 points and defended his title in a grand style. The third place was bagged by Michal Navratil of Czech Republic with 381.95 points.

“It was a high level competition but I felt like I was diving really well and I felt the others were hot on my heels. I’m happy to have pulled it off with my consistency,” said an elated Hunt, who revealed that not taking too much of a break during the off-season helped him do wonders straightaway.

“I tried to stay focused and was into training so that I could get right back on the horse you can say. I wanted to keep improving and that’s what I have done and I still feel I can make some points and have room to improve,” added Hunt, who is also keen to be at the helm of affairs at the World Championships.

LoBue accepted that it was once again a case of so close yet so far for him against Gary’s sheer class. “First, I’m just very happy that it was a good performance in the first competition of the year after more than five months. I was able to shake off some of the rust and compete so well. At the same time, a little bit of sweep because I had one of my best performance ever and it was still far from Hunt,” said LoBue, adding that the result would do a world of good to his confidence in the coming tournaments but it will still need something extra from him to beat Hunt.

“I have to learn some harder dives and continue to work hard. He is the Michael Jordan of our sport. Gary consistently put that four dives down and that’s what gives him the edge. His degree of difficulty is always higher than us and has got ice in his veins and that’s what you saw again,” added LoBue.

In the women’s action, overnight leader Rita Trejo Jimenez of Mexico held on to her lead to pip Australia’s Rhianna Iffland with an aggregate total of 316.45.

The winner’s margin just being a mere 3.65 points as Iffland had bettered on her final dive with a difficulty of 3.9. The judges handed Iffland an impressive 98.80 points for her last effort but it was not enough to get past Jimenez, who managed 87.75 from her final routine.

The third place was bagged by Yana Nestsiarava of Belarus with a total of 296.80. Nestsiarava, thus, taking giant strides there as she was fifth going in the final two rounds.

“Wow … It’s a new start to the year and a dream come true. I’m grateful to all the people who supported me and I feel like I’m walking on the clouds. I was looking for this for a long time and finally I won it,” said a thrilled Jimenez, adding, “I was working very hard on my new dive over the last few months. I wanted to try this difficult dive since 2015 and I didn’t have the courage but finally I could do it and it was good.”