The 2008 edition of the high-profile FINA Diving World Series kicks off this weekend (April 25-26) in Tijuana, Mexico. Once again, the event will unite the best divers from around the world, who will compete on three continents for prize money worth US$480,000. Following the Mexico meeting, subsequent events for the three-part series will be held in Sheffield, Great Britain (May 24-25) and Nanjing, China (May 30-31).
Among those squaring-off in the men’s field will be China’s formidable Feng Wang, Kai Qin and Lu Xin Zhou, Benjamin Swain (GBR), Christopher Colwill and Troy Dumais (USA), Cuba’s Jorge Betancourt and Erick Fornaris, Canadian champion Alexandre Despatie, and the great Dmitry Sautin (RUS). The women’s field is just as impressive, featuring competition between Emilie Heymans and Blythe Hartley (CAN), Mexico’s Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz, Yulia Pakhalina (RUS), and several distinguished Chinese champions, such as platform-specialist Ruolin Che and 3metre legend Jingjing Guo, both of whom are defending champions in this competition. The Series is comprised by the following events (for both men and women): 3m Springboard, 10m Platform, 3m Springboard Synchro, and 10m Platform Synchro.
This is the second year for this prestigious event, which promotes awareness about which countries are renowned for the sport, and fosters growth of the discipline in both the host nations and other parts of the world. FINA’s goal in creating this annual series was to give the finest divers on Earth an exciting and rewarding opportunity to compete against each other more often. Judging from the 2008 entry list, which contains some of the most decorated divers currently competing; this competition is now considered an exclusive opportunity for the very best to gauge their abilities.