The deepest-ever freedive in a competitive event – as opposed to a one-off record bid – was the achievement of Croatian diver Peter Klovar at the recent 2022 CMAS Outdoor World Championship in the Mediterranean town of Kas in Turkey.
Also read: Top Croatian freedivers banned for doping violations
On day two of the competition in the Free Immersion (FIM) discipline, in which competitors dive without fins, pulling on the rope by hand, Klovar reached a world-record depth of 132m and surfaced in 4min 1sec.
CMAS records are set in comparable disciplines to those under the aegis of freediving world governing body AIDA. For comparison, the AIDA FIM men’s world record is still given on its website as 125m, set by the Russian Alexey Molchanov in 2018, although Mateusz Malina of Poland improved on this recently at Vertical Blue 2022, diving to 127m in 4min 32sec, as reported on Divernet.
Klovar’s dive has surprised many freedivers, not only because the depth surpassed even the Constant Weight record, usually carried out using a monofin, but because Klovar is a relative newcomer to freediving. His success is attributed to unusual physical strength and resistance to hypoxia.
On the same day in Kas, Ukrainian freediver Kateryna Sadurska became FIM women’s world record-holder with a 92m dive, her deepest ever in the discipline (Italian Alessia Zecchini set the AIDA record with a 98m dive in 2016).
The following day Klovar broke his second CMAS men’s world record in the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) category, in which divers have to swim down and back up, diving to 94m (AIDA equivalent, New Zealander William Trubridge’s 102m in 2016). Both Klovar and Sadurska also take part in AIDA-regulated competitions.
Other CMAS world records were set at the four-day competition in Turkey but all in specific “Masters” age categories for freedivers aged from 50 to 70-plus. High winds cut short the competition on the final day, which was intended for Constant Weight Bi-fins dives.
Also on Divernet: Freedivers Break 7 World Pool Records, 5 Freedivers: 12 World Records, The Best Freedive In The World, Learn To Freedive With Emma Farrell
