RHIANNAN Iffland made a fairytale return to Australia by winning the Sydney leg of the Red Bull cliff-diving series on Saturday to underline her status as the undisputed world champion.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The 31-year-old from Lake Macquarie - who clinched her sixth successive world title at the tour's previous stop in Bari, Italy, in September - racked up 387.75 points to clinch first place as the high-dive spectacle made its first visit to Australia.
She beat Canadian youngster Molly Carlson (370.70) into second place, with Eleanor Smart (339.10) of the USA finishing third.
"This is my sixth title and it's really extra special," Iffland said after receiving the King Kahekili Trophy - named in honour of a legendary Hawaiian king - by Mrs Macquarie's Chair overlooking Sydney Harbour, in front of a crowd estimated to be in the vicinity of 18,000 fans.
"I'm genuinely speechless.
"I knew I was coming in and holding the King Kahekili trophy regardless of the result today, so I guess that took the pressure off a bit.
"But I still had a job to do. I wanted to put on a really good show in front of our home crowd.
"I managed to pull it off and that's another tick off the list."
The men's competition was won for a record-extending 10th time by French diver Gary Hunt, ahead of Aidan Heslop from Great Britain, and Romania's Catalin Preda.
Competitors dived from a purpose-built platform in the middle of the harbour.
Iffland, who learned to dive in Lambton pool, described her 30th contest victory on the world-series circuit as "extra special".
"This morning I was not knowing how I was going to cope with the nerves, not knowing exactly how I would feel up there," she said.
"I took both dives down for nines [out of 10] and that was what it took. It was cool to see Molly put this dive down and I'm really interested to see the scores with this big degree of difficulty. I think next year is going to be interesting."
