Three absolute and one CMAS world record were set at the seventh CMAS Freediving Depth World Championship which winds up today (27 August), with Russian and Ukrainian athletes once again grabbing the headlines.
On the first day of the World Underwater Federation competition in Roatan, Honduras, Alexey Molchanov set a new men’s Constant Weight with Monofin (CWT) record of 136m. This is an absolute world record in that it was 3m deeper than the AIDA record he had set at the Vertical Blue AIDA event in the Bahamas a month earlier.
The CWT record had been snatched from Molchanov briefly earlier that day in Roatan when fellow-Russian Andrey Matveenko achieved a depth of 134m. Both divers had been required to enter the competition under no flag because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Molchanov went on to break another CMAS world record at the competition on day 3 in the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) discipline, reaching 100m to smash Croatian Petar Klovar’s previous 94m. The dive took 4min 14sec.
“So happy to finally get 100m in competition, it was quite an adventure to get here,” said Molchanov. “I already did 100 in training before, but doing it in competitions and especially at a world championship is so much more interesting.” Molchanov has set more than 30 world records over the past 10 years.
At Vertical Blue in July he had blacked out on his CNF record attempt, but for now the AIDA 102m record set by the Bahamas’ competition founder William Trubridge seven years ago remains intact.
And then Molchanov rounded off a series of triumphs by setting another absolute world record in Constant Weight With Bi-Fins (CWTB). His 124m dive on the final day of the championship was 3m deeper than the AIDA record he had set three months earlier at Oceanquest in the Philippines.
Independence Day
On the day that Molchanov was breaking his CNF record, Ukraine’s Kateryna Sadurska set a new absolute women’s record in that discipline with a 78m dive, bettering by 1m her AIDA world record dive at Vertical Blue. “It was so special to do it today, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, and share it with my country, as it means a lot for all of us!” she said afterwards.
In Roatan Sadurska also improved on her CMAS Free Immersion (FIM) world record with a 97m dive, setting a new national record for Ukraine in the process.
Other CMAS world records were set in Roatan in the “Masters” competitions carried out by freedivers across various age ranges – including UK veteran David Mellor, who reached the 100m mark in the men’s 60-64 FIM competition. Go Freediving instructor Mellor started competing only in 2018, when he was already in his 50s.
Also on Divernet: National passions as 8 freediving world records tumble, Freediver Zecchini smashes bi-fins world record, New on Netflix: The Deepest Breath, No fins, 1 breath, 4+ lengths, 7th world record, British freediver breaks 15-year national record
