Australians Rhiannan Iffland and Xantheia Pennisi have dominated at the opening round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in Boston.

In the women’s competition, Australia’s six-time champion Rhiannan Iffland fended off the challenge of her closest rival last season, Molly Carlson, to claim her eighth win in a row.

For Iffland, the ‘Dominator from Down Under’, not only was this her eighth win in a row, but also an authority-stamping 20th victory in the last 21 stops. Additionally, the 31-year-old has now tasted victory at every location at which she’s competed in the World Series. Despite another spirited challenge from Canada’s Carlson, the 22-point margin of victory suggests that the Australian’s stranglehold over the women’s competition is as strong as ever.

“I'm obviously super, super wrapped to start off the season like this. Usually, the toughest competition for me is always the first one. And yeah, to finish off strong like that was a really nice feeling and gives me a lot of confidence going into the rest”, Iffland described in a first statement. “I know it's going to be a battle and it's going to be a tough season. And I'm really excited for the challenge. I'm ready to step up and compete.”

Fellow Australian, Xantheia Pennisi, rounded out the women’s top three with her fifth career podium.

The season’s first stop brought not only challenging weather conditions, swinging from sunny and sweltering on day one, to wet and windy on day two, but it also came with a couple of new competitive twists. For the first time this season, athletes are now required to execute their dives using four of the five take-off directions - forward, back, reverse, inward and armstand – a rule designed to truly test their versatility.

In addition to the new rule, the male and female with the highest scoring dive at each event will each receive an additional 10 ranking points on top of their event total, an accolade earned by the two winners at this opening stop.

From what was ultimately a damp and chilly start to the season, the World Series will move next to Europe in two weeks’ time, where the athletes will repeat last season’s awe-inspiring feats in front of the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris.