This year’s traditional competition “450th Old Bridge Diving Competition” in Mostar will be held today.
Between 50 and 60 competitors who applied for diving will jump into the cold Neretva River. The exact number will be known prior to the very competition, after all applied divers pass a medical exam.
Speaking of the tradition of diving from the Old Bridge, President of the Club of Divers ‘Mostari’ and President of the Organizational Board of the Diving Competition on the Old Bridge Semir Drljević said that tradition goes back to the far past, in the 16th century, to the time of the construction of the bridge, when not many people in the community that had 4.000 resident knew how to swim. First jump was recorded in 1664, while the formal competition was established in 1968 and has been organized every summer ever since.
“Since the river is ice cold, this is a truly risky venture and only the most skilled and the most prepared divers will have courage to jump. There are two categories of the competition: jumping and diving. In the jumping category, the aim is for the jumper to make the smallest splash possible, while in the diving category it is the opposite,” Drljević said.
During the press conference that was held on Friday, the contribution of this event to the development of tourism was emphasized.
“First tourists after the war came to see Mostar and the Old Bridge, including the diving from the bridge. That fact speaks of the importance of diving for the development of tourism. Over the past decade, Mostar and its diving competition have been a good way to represent BiH, it is one brand that is growing to be something recognizable in Europe and something that symbolizes BiH,” said the Director of the Tourist Board in Mostar Mensud Duraković.
(Source: radiosarajevo.ba/photo: zenit.ba)
