Ex-high diving world champ Heslop returns after back surgery

Heslop won the 2024 Red Bull Cliff Diving world title at the age of 22 [Getty Images] "I should have probably stopped earlier and that would have changed the outcome of how I'm feeling now, but I also wouldn't have the trophy sitting on my shelf. " It was the middle of the Red Bull Cliff Diving Series 2024 series and a 22-year-old Aidan Heslop was faced with a dilemma. Suffering with major back pain, the high diver - who has competed twice for Wales at the Commonwealth Games - was at the top of the standings, with his ambitions of becoming the youngest world champion in touching distance.

He looked at his girlfriend, fellow diver Molly Carlson, and said: "I want to win this year, and if that means I need to take a year off next year to just recover from this dream of mine, then that's what it's going to be. " As the competition moved to Sydney for the eighth and final round, Heslop was able to maintain his lead and win the world title, but it was not without incident. "Just a couple hours after getting of the plane in Sydney I was playing chess in the park.

"A piece fell down and as I went to pick it up I just, it was almost like I got stabbed in the back, and I couldn't even walk. " "In that moment I was convinced it was over. "If I can't even walk how am I going to run to the end of a 27m platform and do the hardest dive in the world?

" Heslop has described how the pain affected him in a documentary called 444 days - The Long Way Back. "The pain for the longest time had just been in my right glute, just shooting down my leg all the time. "I'd have to get out of bed, brush my teeth and then lay back in bed in a foetal position.