Dmitry Sautin: The world’s best high divers will gather in Kazan. Part 4

Two-time Olympic diving champion Dmitry Sautin, who had recently visited Kazan and hosted a masterclass for trainees of Kazan’s sports schools, gave an interview in which he shared his expectations for the upcoming FINA High Diving World Cup. The tournament will be held on the left bank of the Kazanka River, near the Palace of Farmers, on August 8-10. It will serve as a test event in the lead-up to the 2015 FINA World Championships.

The world’s greatest athletes confirmed their participation in the event. It is already known that Artem Silchenko will represent Russia at the World Cup. He placed sixth during last year’s FINA World Championships in Barcelona and in October he took the title at the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series (as the name suggests, cliff diving involves the execution of various types of dives from natural features such as cliffs). The renowned Colombian cliff diver, Orlando Duque, who is currently the first and only world high diving champion, will come to Kazan for the tournament. Both Duque and Silchenko earlier took titles in the World Series and made it more than once to the season’s top 3.

“Artem Silchenko of Russia is a serious contender for medals. Ilya Schurov from St Petersburg is another representative of our country and is currently at the training camp in Austria. 27 metres is no joke. Artem chose this sport himself and he does well in it. I hope that this year he will put up a good fight for medals,” Dmitry Sautin said.

When asked about the favourites, Sautin mentioned Harry Hunt. “It’s a diver that started doing shows and he has been doing it for several years now. Top athletes in this sport will gather in Kazan, and this is the most intriguing thing,” he said.

The upcoming tournament will bring together athletes from the following countries: Russia (2), Brazil (3), Bulgaria (1), Colombia (3), Czech Republic (1), France (1), UK (2), Germany (2) Italy (1), Luxembourg (1), Mexico (4), Poland (1), Switzerland (1), Ukraine (3), Belarus (1). The highest number of athletes will come from the United States (7).