Molly Carlson went into day three at the first high dive World Cup event of the year in third place but an uncharacteristic mistake by a four-time world champion enabled her to leap to the top.
Rhiannan Iffland of Australia had led the women’s 20m diving competition through the first two dives and looked to be in control according to an article on worldaquatics.com. The final day of competition goes in reverse order with the leaders diving last. Carlson’s fellow Canadian Simone Leathead was in seventh place coming into the last day and put in a great dive to put her into first place with the top three divers to come.
Carlson put up her second hardest dive of the competition, points are earned for difficulty, and executed it well enough to jump ahead of her teammate into first.
Carlson was followed by American Kaylea Arnett whose dive was enough to put her in third behind the two Canadians.
According to World Aquatics, Iffland had left her hardest dive of the meet for last. The dive looked to go well in the air but Iffland entered the water with her arms above her shoulders which carried a detrimental penalty dropping her to ninth place.
Carlson’s win also came on her 26th birthday.
Carlson’s boyfriend, British diver Aidan Heslop also finished on the podium, taking third in the men’s 27m competition.
The pair will now go on to the next stop on the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series which has its next stop in Antalya, Turkey, followed by another stop on the World Cup circuit in Brasilia Brazil October 11-13.
