With the passing of time, breaking world records become ever more challenging for freedivers – and even more so when bad weather takes a hand. Only one new world record was set at the 33rd AIDA Depth World Championship on Corsica, as serial record-breaker Alexey Molchanov was able to better a previous deep dive of his own.
The breakthrough came in the men’s Constant Weight Bi-Fins (CWTB) event on the fourth day of a competition beset by strong winds, swells and a harsh thermocline in the Mediterranean’s Gulf of Ajaccio.
The event had been rescheduled by 24 hours to 10 September because of the difficult conditions for competitors. The Russian freediver, competing as an “Individual Neutral Athlete”, descended to 125m – 2m deeper than the depth he had managed at the same competition in Limassol, Cyprus last year. His dive took 4min 23sec.
In CWTB the diver descends and ascends unassisted by sleds or propulsion devices. Using two fins is reckoned to provide more control and stability than when using a monofin, but also requires greater effort.
In recent years Molchanov has usually found himself competing with Arnaud Jerald as his only close rival in CWTB, so with the French freediver absent this year he could have taken it easy and still taken a Championship gold medal.
The achievement came three days after he had blacked out 2m from the surface, on the point of equalling his 100m Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) world record.
35th world record
Molchanov already holds the 124m absolute CWTB record, set at the CMAS 7th Freediving Depth World Championship in Roatan, Honduras last year. The latest world record was his seventh in the discipline, and the 35th overall of his career.
Molchanov also holds the AIDA Constant Weight Monofin (CWTB) (136m) and Variable Weight (156m) world records.
The competition wrapped up on 15 September, with two continental and 36 national records having been set by competitors during the week.
An Overall category rewards those freedivers deemed to have excelled across the Free Immersion, CWT, CNF, and CWTB disciplines, and this resulted in Croatian Petar Klovar being named Men's Overall Champion, while Marianna Gillespie from France, competing as an individual international athlete, took the women’s title for the third consecutive year.
Also on Divernet: 3 world + UK freedive records set in Cyprus, Absolute freediving world records set in Roatan, Ice-breakers: Freediving records topple, National passions as 8 freediving world records tumble
