Gary Hunt wins high-diving gold in Kazan
Last Updated: 05/08/15 4:54pm
Gary Hunt won Great Britain’s third gold medal of the world aquatic championships in Kazan by taking gold in the men’s high-diving competition.
Hunt, from Southampton, erased the memory of Barcelona in 2013, when he lost out on gold to Colombia’s Orlando Duque by less than a point after a poor final dive.
The 31-year-old, who has won the last five world series events and eight of the last 10, led over all five rounds of the 27-metre competition.
He won gold with 629.30 points as Jonathan Paredes of Mexico took silver with 596.45pts and Russia's Artem Silchenko earned bronze with 593.95.
"I had to live with Barcelona for two years. I was nervous to do the same thing here. To have a gold medal round my neck is a big relief," said Hunt.
"Over the winter I put my blinkers on and got down to hard training. Now it's job done."
But he said his Barcelona disappointment weighed heavily on his mind before his final dive in Kazan.
"I was in the same position I was in Barcelona and with a bad dive I would have missed the gold," he said.
"It was definitely possible, but luckily for me it didn't happen."
Hunt says he has built a career out of being a daredevil as a child.
"I was always the diver who played around doing dives that no one else was doing when I was younger," he said.
It was Britain's third gold medal in Kazan after Adam Peaty won the men's 100m breaststroke final on Monday and James Guy's victory in the men's 200m freestyle final on Tuesday.
