Day 7 of the AIDA Depth World Championships in Cyprus saw Russia’s Alexey Molchanov earn the gold medal in the Constant Weight with Monofin (CWT) discipline, while Croatia’s Petar Klovar took the overall men’s podium.
Molchanov, competing as an independent athlete, had announced a depth of 133m/436ft but turned back at the 130m/426.5ft mark and made a clean surface protocol. While his early turn earned him a yellow card, the depth he achieved was enough for the gold medal.
Reflecting on his dive, Molchanov said in a post-dive interview:
“I probably didn’t charge the mouthfill as deep as I should for this dive. Like, it is enough for 125, 130-ish, but 130-plus, I have to do another top up, and I think I missed it, which is OK.”
His countryman Alexander Vinogradov, also competing as an independent athlete, brought home the silver medal with a successful dive to 117m/384ft.
Like on Day 6 in the Free Immersion (FIM) discipline, Oman’s Omar Al Ghailani and France’s Abdelatif Alouach repeated their feat in tying for the bronze medal with their successful dives to 109m/358ft, respectively. This was Al Ghailani’s third medal in the competition and set a new National Record.
National Records
In addition to Al Ghailani, six other men’s national records were set, including:
- Jihoon Jang (South Korea) – 107m/351ft
- Tommi Pasanen (Finland) – 101m/331ft
- Gonzalo Cortes Tavara (Peru) – 93m/305ft
- Mohammed Abdulla (Qatar) – 91m/299ft
- Loizos Pafitis (Cyprus) – 74m/243ft
- Hans Hernandez (Costa Rica) – 65m/213ft
Overall Men’s Podium
After a week of elite performances across all four disciplines, Petar Klovar stood at the top of the men’s podium and took home the Natalia Molchanova Award for being a back-to-back overall champion.
In post-dive remarks, Klovar said:
“It was not easy, and overall my preparation for the championship was not easy, but I think it was my maximum for today.”
Omar Al Ghailani took second place with setting new national records in all the disciplines, and Alexey Molchanov nabbed third, despite his minor blackout in the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) discipline. Even with that, his gold medals in CWT and FIM along with the Constant Weight with Bifins (CWTB) world record solidified his bronze overall medal.
Check out the video replay and full results below.
