Free Immersion divers set new world records

UPDATED 26 April as Petar Klovar claims second world record

New male and female world records in the Free Immersion (FIM) discipline have been claimed by European freedivers at the AIDA Mabini Depth Quest competition currently being held in the Philippines.

Hungarian diver Zsófia Törőcsik, 37, claimed her record for a 105m dive on the opening day (20 April), after reaching 107m in pre-competition training a week earlier. The previous record of 103m had been held by Croatian diver Sanda Delija since last May. 

“I’m so happy!” said Törőcsik, describing the dive as difficult as a result of strong wind and current – and an unexpected technical problem. “For some reason the program on my watch that would have given the sound signals down didn’t start, so I guessed from feeling and the darkness of the water what depth I was at,” she said.

In FIM freedivers descend and ascend by pulling themselves along a rope without use of fins. Success in this constant-weight discipline hinges on energy conservation, relaxation and efficient equalisation.

Törőcsik is also world number one in two AIDA horizontal breath-hold disciplines, holding the record for women’s dynamic apnea (DYN) of 280m, and dynamic using bi-fins (DYNB) of 259m, both set last year. She also became the first woman to cover 300m in DYN at the World Games in China last year.

Deepest constant-weight dive yet

Meanwhile in the men’s FIM event Croatian freediver Petar Klovar set a new world record of 137m. The dive was 2m deeper than the one that had given him the record in 2023, and also the deepest to date across all four constant-weight disciplines. Klovar alreay held the AIDA Constant Weight Without Fins (CNF) record of 103m.

On 24 April Klovar then went on set another world record with his first in the Constant Weight Bi-fins (CWTB) category. He reached a depth of 128m, breaking by 1m the AIDA record set last December in Dominica by Russian diver Andrey Molchanov.

All three world records set in the Philippines are absolute in that the dives were deeper than the best in the same categories recognised by CMAS. The AIDA Mabini Depth Quest concludes today (26 April).