Southampton's Gary Hunt dramatically surrendered his cliff diving title after an error in the final round of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series

Jonathan Paredes took advantage of Hunt's error in Chile to capture his maiden world series.

The Mexican watched on in amazement as championship leader Hunt accidentally added an extra twist to his final dive at Lago Ranco, to score zero points.

Paredes duly held his nerve to score 100.45 with his exemplary fourth and final dive to win the Chile event and take home the King Kahekili trophy by a slender 10 points from six-time World Series champion Hunt.

It was a fitting reward for Paredes after he mastered a new dive over the course of the season to finish strongly and improve on his third place overall in 2015 and runner-up spot behind Hunt last season.

Czech diver Michal Navratil produced a series of great dives to finish second at the iconic waterfall setting with Italian wildcard Alessandro De Rose ending in third.

Paredes compiled 720 points over the course of the six stops with Hunt scoring 710, fellow Briton Blake Aldridge third overall with 580 and De Rose a brilliant fourth to cement a permanent spot next season after competing in only five out of the six stops.

Meanwhile, Australian Rhiannan Iffland only led by 60 points from Adriana Jimenez and 80 from compatriot Helena Merten heading into the last South American stop.

But she consolidated her meteoric rise with a brave performance after picking up a knee injury at the previous Mostar stop.

With Jimenez unable to complete the fourth and final dive due to injury, it was left to a fight between Iffland and Merten for the title besides the roaring waterfall.

Merten produced a good dive to give Iffland something to think about, however the reigning champion nailed an excellent 91.20 score with heavy strapping on her knees to win the finale and confirm overall victory by 890 points to Merten’s 740 and Jimenez’s 690.

Wildcard Yana Nestsiarava of Belarus produced a tremendous two days of competition to finish second at the foot of the Andes with Merten third in Chile.