Only a single world record was set at the 32nd AIDA Pool World Championship at Kaunas in Lithuania last week, and it went to a German female apneist in her mid-50s, Heike Schwerdtner, who succeeded in holding her breath at the poolside for 9min 7sec.
Her achievement is significant because that record had previously been held by the late Russian freediver Natalia Molchanova – for no fewer than 19 years.
Also read: Ukrainian freediver sets no-fins world record
Molchanova first set the Static Apnea (STA) record back in the first AIDA Individual Pool World Freediving Championship in 2005 with what now seems a modest time of 7min 16sec, going on to improve on it on four occasions, most recently to 9min 2sec in 2013, two years before her death.
The pool championship was not short of records, but they were otherwise of the national and continental variety. The competition kicked off with the initial Dynamic Apnea Bifins (DYNB) events on 25 June, resulting in a record crop of 22 national and five continental records.
Also read: Polish freedivers make big splash in Athens
Over its four days the livestreamed event attracted the most competitors from different countries to date, with 114 athletes competing under 35 flags on the first day alone.
DYNB is the newest freediving discipline, added to the line-up in 2018, and the AIDA world records are held by Poles Mateusz Malina (290m) and Magdalena Solich Talanda (243m). No-one approached these distances at Kaunas.
Day two (26 June) featured what is regarded as the most demanding discipline, Dynamic No Fins (DNF), which is also ruled from Poland – Malina again for the men (250m) and Julia Kozerska (213m). Kozerska and another Polish freediver, Karol Karcz, took the gold medals in Lithuania but the world records remained intact. Ten national and three continental records were broken.
After an official training day the competition resumed with Static Apnea on 27 June and Schwerdtner’s world record, along with 10 national and one continental title.
And another 11 national and five continental records followed on the final day (28 June) as the focus shifted to Dynamic Apnea (DYN) using the traditional monofin. Full results of all events can be found on the website, and video footage of each day’s events can be found on AIDA’s YouTube channel.
Also on Divernet: FACE-DOWN: THE LATEST RAID FREEDIVING COURSE, KATE WINSLET: BREATH-HOLDING FOR BRITAIN?, DYNAMIC APNEA: NEW CMAS WORLD RECORD + RAID COURSE, FREE YOUR MIND
