Despite a 50-minute delay due to current and winds, the final day of the AIDA Depth World Championships in Cyprus saw two new women’s continental records set, along with nine national records.
The original competition date for the women’s Constant Weight with Fins (CWT) discipline of September 30th was postponed due to high winds. The could have been one of the reasons why some athletes experienced challenging dives.
Not so for the USA’s Enchante Gallardo, though, who executed a successful 104m/341ft dive to earn her a gold medal as well as set a new North American continental record.
Russia’s Tatiana Zemskikh, competing as an independent athlete, brought home the silver medal with her 97m/318ft dive, while South Africa’s Talya Davidoff took bronze and an African continental record with her 95m/312ft dive.
In post-dive comments, Gallardo said:
“I’m always happy to get another continental record or a national record. I really enjoy going deeper and pushing the limits. It’s also a [personal best], so it was exciting for me and it just motivates me to want to go deeper.”
Zemskikh said of her dive:
“It was OK, [I was] a little bit nervous before [my] dive, but when I start to dive it was OK.”
She credited the support of her friends as being part of the reason for her podium finish.
Challenges
Several competitors ran into challenging dives, resulting in yellow and red cards.
Ukraine’s Kateryna Sadurska had announced a depth of 103m/338ft but turned around at the 87m/285ft mark, resulting in a yellow card and a penalty of 17 points.
Russia’s Olga Markina, also competing as an independent athlete, was also gunning for 103m but turned around at the 101m/331ft mark. Unfortunately she didn’t complete her surface protocol within the required first 15 seconds, resulting in a red card.
National Records
Nine national records were set on the final day of the competition, including:
- Zsofia Torocsik (Hungary) – 90m/295ft
- Sanda Delija (Croatia) – 87m/285ft
- Jade Macdonald Razvi (Australia) – 83m/272ft
- Nikita Fima Atriru (Indonesia) – 75m/246ft
- Natalia Padro (Puerto Rico) – 72m/236ft
- Megan Lyons (Ireland) – 61m/200ft
- Silviya Rashkova (Bulgaria) – 60m/197ft
- Angeliki Loutsiou (Cyprus) – 55m/180ft
- Luciana Chbeir (Lebanon) – 42m/138ft
Overall Women’s Podium
In addition to her National Record CWT dive on Day 8, Zsofia Torocsik’s Free Immersion (FIM) gold medal, Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) silver and Constant Weight with Bifins (CWTB) bronze were enough to earn her 352 points and the top spot on the women’s overall podium, as well as the Natalia Molchanova Award.
Talya Davidoff’s consistent podium finishes brought her 304 points and second place, while Croatia’s Sanda Delija earned 293 points for third place.
Commenting on her overall first-place podium finish, Torocsik said:
“I didn’t expect something like this. I was dreaming about some medals — one or two, maybe if I’m lucky enough.”
Winning both the pool and depth championships in the same year was “an amazing feeling,” she added.
Davidoff said:
“It feels amazing. The dive was really easy, I’ve trained for it so i felt really confident in my ability to do it, but it’s so nice to be 5 meters [16ft] off the men’s South African record.”
Check out the video replay and full results below.
(Featured Image Credit: ICARUS Sports Media/DIvEye)
