Mostar divers compete celebrating 20th anniversary of rebuilt Old Bridge

By Amel Emric

MOSTAR, Bosnia and Herzegovina (Reuters) - Thousands of tourists braved extreme heat to cheer for divers plunging from the Old Bridge in Bosnia's city of Mostar, a 458-year-old tradition, this year celebrating the 20th anniversary of the reconstruction of the landmark destroyed in war.

The 16th century bridge, a marvel of Ottoman-era architecture where people have met for centuries from all of Bosnia's ethnic groups, was destroyed by Bosnian Croat artillery in 1993, in one of the major cultural losses of the Bosnian war.

In 2004, it was rebuilt in an effort led by the World Bank and UNESCO as the symbol of reconciliation and unification of the ethnically-divided town, and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Thirty-eight athletes from Bosnia and abroad took part in Sunday's contest, diving 24 metres (80 feet) from the bridge's high arch into the cold waters of the Neretva River below.

"I have been waiting for this the whole year," said 20-year-old Emil Tiro from Mostar, who won the award for best jump feet first for the second time.

"This is more important to me than my birthday, than anything else."

Vedad Dedic was the winner of the "swallow dive", a potentially dangerous head-first dive with wide open arms.

"It's such a boost of adrenaline and a shock itself that you even don't feel the coldness of the river," said Dedic.

The contest opened with a performance by a ballet dancer hanging from the bridge on a silk rope, and closed with evening jumps by divers carrying torches into the river.

Visitors cooled off in the river or strolled through the narrow cobbled streets of the Mostar Old Town.

"I think that high diving competitions are among key boosters of tourism in whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only in Mostar," said Lorens Listo, a high-diving veteran with 13 victories.

"The jumps were born here 458 years ago, it is not a small thing," Listo added. "When the bridge was rebuilt, a new generation of divers has been inscribed in the history."

(Reporting by Amel Emric; Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Peter Graff)