After the first two rounds of high diving at the historic Porto Flavia mine, the 2024 world champion Aidan Heslop leads the men’s field. Australia’s Xantheia Pennisi leads the women with two dives remaining on Sunday.

The first rounds of the men’s contest featured multiple ties, as five men filled the top three ranks. In round two, where there was no cap on the degree of difficulty, the past three world champions seized the top three spots. Heading into Sunday’s final rounds, Britain’s Aidan Heslop leads the way with 218.00 points. The 24-year-old increased his DD significantly since the World Cup opener two months ago and a full year after having back surgery. The 2023 world champion Constantin Popovici of Romania was second, 23.00 points behind Heslop. The reigning world champ James Lichtenstein of the US (who skipped the first World Cup in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in May) was third, 26.20 points off the lead. Notably, two-time world champion, Gary Hunt, lurked in sixth at age 42.

On the women’s side, an Australian leads the field – as expected – but it’s not five-time world champion Rhiannan Iffland. It’s 27-year-old Xantheia Pennisi of Brisbane whose second high dive, a double-twisting back triple, outscored everyone (96.75 points) and contributed to her 2.05-point lead over Kaylea Arnett of the US and her 6.15-point edge over 2025 World Championships silver medallist Simone Leathead of Canada at the competition’s midpoint.

Notably, Canada’s Molly Carlson is in fifth place (behind American Lisa Faulkner) and will have to make up an 18.75-point deficit on day 2 to overtake the lead.  Just behind Carlson is Iffland, uncharacteristically ranked sixth, 21.50 points behind her countrywoman Pennisi.

Here’s what the leaders said afterwards.

Women’s 20m

Pennisi, the women’s leader, said:

"I’m just taking it one dive at a time. I don’t want to think about [my position] too much [overnight]"
By Xantheia Pennisi

”She noted that it was much windier last year at the Porto Flavia World Cup, where Pennisi finished 10th. “This year it’s just perfect,” she said. “It’s like 39 degrees (102 F). The breeze is nice, actually.”

Arnett, 33, the current runner-up, said, “I am not a morning person, so it took me a while to wake up, but I felt super-relaxed, super-calm. It felt like beach club today! Nice and chill.” Tonight, Arnett said she will try to get as much sleep as possible, “but I don’t try to over-prepare. Over-preparing can play with your mind so I try to just live in the moment and deal with whatever the situation is.” With all the pressure on Sunday’s last two dives, she said, “as long as I stay relaxed, it’s going to be a good time.”

Leathead, 23, the youngest female diver in the top three, said her goal this season was consistency so she was happy with Saturday’s dives and looked forward to Sunday. “The scenery is perfect and the water is perfect,” she said.

Men’s 27m

Heslop, the men’s leader, said he was relieved by his performance, explaining that when he did his first dive in training a few days ago (a 304B), “it was awful.” When he did a pair of his second dives today in training (5286B with 5.8 DD), both were “not-great either… so it was nice to find my rhythm in the competition.

“I struggled in the first couple of days to get into the competition mindset, but as soon as the judges were out, the sun was out, and the people were here, I got into that zone. It doesn’t always happen, but it happened today which was great.”

At the World Cup opener in mid-May, Heslop had been suffering from a groin injury which made it tough to keep his legs together when he had to twist in the middle of a dive. Back then, it was so painful that he had to max out his optional DDs at 4.6 and 4.9. He said his more difficult list in Porto Flavia “is the plan” for the rest of the season, which now includes a third World Cup event in Zhaoqing, China, November 21-22.

More immediately, Heslop plans to stay up Saturday night and watch the football England vs Norway World Cup football quarterfinal, even it means sacrificing a bit of sleep.

"It’s a tough choice, but it only comes around every four years so I’ll be up! Come on England!"
By Aidan Heslop

Second-ranked Popovici, 37, called his performance on Saturday “not excellent, but good enough for being satisfied. Tomorrow, the last round will decide everything. Some of us have a really high DD and we’re hoping on that lucky one.”

Right now, Popovici said, “It doesn’t matter who is first or second or sixth. On the last round you can [make up] like 40 points in one dive. Five or six people can change the podium. I’m just focusing on a few things like take-off, positioning, and the entry.  If it gets windy and I do inward, that’s when I have some problems because I am standing on tiptoe. Hopefully, tomorrow is not going to be windy because I am doing inward!”

Third-ranked Lichtenstein, 31, said he was dissatisfied with his opening dive, a forward triple with ½ twist (5161B) that earned 57.40 points and put him in 13th place. But he explained that “when I do a bad dive, I kind of relax for the next one, which is sometimes a good thing; you’re not worried about the consequences. I hope to move up in the rankings tomorrow, but Costa and Aiden are looking pretty good so we’ll see.”

The final two rounds in Porto Flavia, Italy, will begin Sunday at 11:00 Central European summer time (CEST).

Standings

For the full women’s standings at Porto Flavia, click here

For the men’s standings, click here