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<i>Australia's Rhiannan Iffland has won the latest women's round of the Cliff Diving World Series in Northern Ireland to extend her overall standings lead.</i>
Australia's Rhiannan Iffland has soared to a spectacular win at the fourth stop, and first in Northern Ireland, of the 2024 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series.
In the cold, wet and windy conditions at the picturesque Causeway Coast, the 32-year-old from Newcastle picked up 9.0s from the judges in each of the first three rounds, before a huge final dive sealed her impressive win over Ginni van Katwijk.
The Dutchwoman claimed a career-best second place and her first ever podium while Molly Carlson of Canada completed the podium.
Great Britain's Aidan Heslop won the men's event.
Iffland, the dominant force in the women's competition over the last eight years, also picked up an extra point for the competition's best dive to extend her advantage in the overall standings to 19 points over Carlson, edging her closer to a record-extending eighth King Kahekili trophy.
"I'm just getting onto a roll in competitions now and really tapping into that good place when I'm standing up there before the dives," Iffland, who finished with a season-best total score of 371.90 points, said.
"I'm not going to slow down between now and the next stop and I'm really looking forward to it."
Heslop finished 46.10 points ahead of Romania's Constantin Popovici with James Lichtenstein third.
The American collected his fourth podium this season, maintaining his place atop the overall men's leaderboard. He is the first diver in history to hold top spot at the midway point of a season without winning a competition.
"I'm so happy. I have a few wins under my belt, but this is my first home win and hopefully I can bag a few more," 22-year-old Heslop said.
"It hasn't been the best weather over the past few days, so I think I had a little bit of an advantage there being a Brit. I was in a good headspace all day and I'm just excited that I managed to get it done."
The world's best cliff divers can now enjoy a three-week break before they head to Oslo, Norway where the second half of the season will get underway on August 8 from the longest platform in World Series history.
