News
Rhiannan Flies High in Abu Dhabi
Published Tue 21 Dec 2021
A combined team of three divers and two high divers have wrapped up their competition at FINA Abu Dhabi 2021 with a series of impressive finishes.
Leading the way for the Green and Gold was Rhiannan Iffland who once again asserted her dominance on the 20-Metre tower taking home gold ahead of athletes from Canada and Colombia.
Rhiannan put on a show with her four-dive list highlighted by dive two, a back triple-somersault two-twist pike, pulling a perfect ten from judge seven. Across her entire list, Rhiannan received no less than an eight-and-a-half from the judges cementing her position as the world’s best high diver.
“I am really excited about my performance today, I was very confident coming in this morning because I dove so strong yesterday. I wanted to make it mine, and I did it,” Rhiannan told FINA.
Joining Rhiannan in the high diving contest, Xantheia Pennisi displayed consistency with a 7th place finish and a score of 199.20. The score marks a new personal best for Xantheia from FINA competitions, her previous record of 189.30 came in 2019 at the FINA High Diving World Cup held in Zhaoqing.
The high diving event served as the final qualification competition for high divers looking to book their ticket to next year’s FINA World Championships. Both Rhiannan and Xantheia had already secured their position in the championships from previous results.
On the lower boards, in the first of its kind open water competition, Melissa Wu, Cassiel Rousseau, and Esther Qin flew the flag for Australia in the Diving Team Exhibition.
The trio of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games finalists put forward a valiant effort coming up just short of the podium with a 4th place finish in the event after sliding from 3rd with one dive to go.
Teams from Brazil, Great Britain, and China took out the top three positions in the event respectively.
Cassiel said he was reluctant to dive into open water at first but quickly came around to the idea.
“At first, I thought it would suck,” Cassiel told FINA, “But once we got here, it just feels like a holiday, and it is just great fun. For everyone, it was a challenge, but the setup of the venue was just great.”
Diving Australia General Manager of High Performance and Pathways Steve Foley said the event showed the depth of Australian athletes across both disciplines.
“This event allowed for the very first time our Australian high divers and divers to come together at the same venue,” Steve said.
“Having these five athletes together shows the true strength of our sport in this country and bodes very well as we look forward to our next combined event, May’s 19th FINA World Championships in Fukuoka.
“Once again a huge congratulations must go out to Rhiannan who continues to prove time and time again why she is undoubtably the world’s best in what she does.
“She continues to push the boundary of high diving which we one day hope to see in the Olympic Games.”
Collectively Australian athletes picked up USD$28,500 in prize money from the event.
