TWO former Southampton Diving Academy stars finished first and second in the opening Red Bull World Cliff Diving Championship event of 2017 in Ireland.

Reigning champion Gary Hunt won at Inis Mór with Blake Aldridge runner-up.

Both men had leapt 90 foot off a platform - three times the Olympic diving height - to land in a sea-pool only about 20 feet wide.

"Winning the first competition was really, really a big deal for me,” Hunt said.

“Now to have a couple of weeks off and know that I’ve got a good start is an amazing feeling.”

This was the third time the cliff diving elite had returned to the Irish venue after 2012 and 2014, but the women were competing for the first time there.

Australia’s Rhiannan Iffland, like Hunt the reigning world champion, also won her event.

The next cliff diving event takes place at Sao Miguel in the Azores, followed by stops in Italy, the USA, Bosnia and Chile.

Hunt - who celebrated his 33td birthday earlier this month - is aiming to win the world title for the seventh year running.

He has previously won in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The event started in 2009 and in the two years where he wasn't won it, he has finished second.