32nd AIDA World Championship

The final day of the 32nd AIDA FREEDIVING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS in Kaunas, Lithuania has seen competition in the most beautiful and dynamic freediving discipline, where athletes are competing in covering the longest distance, holding their breath, equipped with a monofin. Proper technique in using the monofin provides efficient propulsion through the water. Distances covered with this technique are the longest of all freediving pool distances. The world record is currently held by Magdalena Solich – Talanda, Poland – 277m and Guillaume Bourdila, France 301m.

The dynamic competition this year has seen some amazing performances. 11 athletes have set national records for their countries. The podium in the Zalgirio Arena pool saw some very well known names in freediving like Julia Kozerska, Poland who won the title of the world champion in DYN, but also some new names like Zsofia Torocsik, Hungary, who took silver medal in this discipline. This was Zsofia’s first time in a world championships, but she had some amazing results. She exceeded her own expectations and will leave Kaunas with 2 silver medals. Yasuko Ozeki of Japan won bronze. Yasuko has been building her competitive freediving career and slowly getting to podium positions.

In the male category, the title of the world champion was conquered by Clement Lesaffre, French athlete. Clement is an experienced athlete who propelled himself for 2 meters more than his closest opponent with his last kick, and reached the distance of 254m and a gold medal. Ibrahim Al Sulaitni from Oman, took silver with a dive of 252m. Canadian athlete Sylvain Desaulniers got bronze with a dive of 242m.
Bringing further countries into competitive freediving and developing the sport there assures the future of the sport will hopefully bring it to a wider international sport arena.

During the closing ceremony the overall winners were awarded the Molchanova award, as she is still the most accomplished freediving athlete. Julia Kozerska won the Molchanova for the second year in a row. Julia has confirmed her dominance in women’s freediving, and many feel that this is true for freediving overall as she has collected 427.1 points from all four disciplines: 3 gold medals in dynamic disciplines and 4th place in static.

In the male category, the overall winner is David Spreitz Elings of Sweden with 413.5 points, as a world champion in static, 4th in DYNB and DYN. This is big breakthrough for David and we expect to see a lot more from him in the following years.

Results of the day
DYNAMIC
WOMEN NATIONAL RECORDS

• Lithuania – Evelina Navašinskaite 207m
• Korea – Jiyeon Kim 222m
• Israel – Thalia Sklair 153m
• Romania – Diana Boesan 161m
• Finland – Janita Kulkula 200m
• Portugal – Sandra Brum 150m
• Latvia – Ilona Bardiseva 167m
• Hungary – Zsofia Torocsik 250m

MEN NATIONAL RECORDS

• Lithuania – Ivan Gavriljev 200m
• Oman – Ibrahim Al Sulaitni 252m
• Lithuania – Aleksandr Tetervov 213m

MEN CONTINENTAL RECORDS

• North America – Sylvain Desaulniers 242m
• North America – Rolando Salgado 266m

WOMEN CONTINENTAL RECORDS

• North America – Natalie Bruce 231m

DYN WOMEN PODIUM

1. Julia Kozerska, Poland – 252m
2. Zsofia Torocsik, Hungary – 250m
3. Yasuko Ozeki, Japan – 231m

DYN MEN PODIUM

1. Clement Lesaffre, France – 254m
2. Ibrahim Al Sulaitni, Oman – 252m
3. Sylvain Desaulniers, Canade – 242m