Dubai: World-class diving returns to the UAE on Thursday as the second round of the Fina/NVC Diving World Series 2016 starts in Dubai.
As many as 68 competitors from 12 countries have arrived in Dubai ready for the competition, which takes place at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
The event will feature a star-studded line-up of top class divers — including multiple world and Olympic champions. The championship opened in Beijing last weekend, and after Dubai will move to Windsor, Canada before the last leg in Kazan, Russia on April 22-24.
Former world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Tom Daley of Great Britain, who was joined by Olympic Gold and Bronze medallist David Boudia of the US, Olympic bronze medallist Roseline Filion of Canada and 2015 World Champion Italian diver, Tania Cagnotto, were all present as the second round was officially announced at the Hamdan Sports Complex yesterday.
“Going into the London 2012 Games I will probably never ever feel the amount of pressure at any moment in my life than I did standing at the 10 metre board with 18,000 people watching and millions watching at home expecting me to pop into the water and come away with a medal. So going into this year, it’s completely different, it is four years on and a lot more experience. I am excited about the Olympics this year, there are a lot of competitions before that and the World Series, every year gets better and better and the standard gets higher and higher,” said Daley.
Italian diver Cagnotto added: “These events are really good practice for us before the Olympics, I really like these events as we compete against some of the best in the world. I am not very well right now, but I hope to recover before the competition this weekend.”
The Chinese team is undoubtedly the dominant force in world diving, and achieved a clean sweep of the gold medals in the first round of the series in Beijing last weekend. However with many divers in full preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games, they will be tested in every event.
The competition runs over three days, and starts with the 10m platform synchro finals for men and women from 10am-12noon, while the official opening ceremony will take place at 5pm.
Divers compete for points and prize money at each of the 10 events, in the categories of 3-metre springboard and 10-metre platform in solo, synchro and mixed synchro diving. There will be two sessions on each day, from 10am to 12 noon and then from 5pm to 8pm.
