Champion freediver Alexey Molchanov had his eyes set on a Constant Weight with Bifins world record this week at the CMAS Depth World Championships in Kalamata, Greece.
While he successfully dove to 125m/410ft — a meter deeper than his current CMAS world record of 124m/107ft — and returned to the surface, he missed the bottom plate and didn’t grab the depth tag, which wound up costing him the official recognition of the world record attempt under CMAS rules.
That said, the successful dive was enough to earn him first place in the competition.
This isn’t the first time Molchanov has dived to such a depth, though. Last month at the AIDA Freediving World Championships in Ajaccio, France, he successfully set the absolute world record with a dive to 125m.
According to a post on the Molchanovs Facebook page:
“Alexey reached the bottom plate and probably confused it with a lanyard stopper — he was looking for a tag a meter below it. Obviously, the tag wasn’t found at that depth, so he emerged without it. At the surface, Alexey performed the protocol, explained that he didn’t find the tag, and received a yellow card. The athlete won his third gold medal at the Championship, but a new world record wasn’t in the cards.”
