Thursday, March 28, 2024
FreedivingBack to Back World Records from Alexey Molchanov & Alessia Zecchini

Back to Back World Records from Alexey Molchanov & Alessia Zecchini

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The white (AIDA) and blue (CMAS) platforms at the 2019 Caribbean Cup have been extremely busy as of late and August 5th was no exception.

Donning a pair of his own Molchanov’s fins and lustrous gold suit, Alexey Molchanov of Russia set a new World Record in the Constant Weight with Bi-fins (CWTB) discipline when he successfully completed a dive to 110 meters (361 feet) as observed by AIDA judges (pending a doping test, as per the AIDA protocol).

Alexey rising (photo by Alex St. Jean)
Alexey rising (photo by Alex St. Jean)

According to Alexey:

Reaching 110 meters in b-fins is a real milestone for me and for the freediving community. While I felt confident and solid enough to do this dive, it was not easy. Not only was it the 4th day of the competition, but I had already done several deep dives during the preceding days and overall I felt quite lactic. Not to mention I had to deal with poor conditions including strong currents on my early turn dive to 84m instead of 93 CNF, my CWT dive to 124m and my 118m free immersion dive — all were against current. On this this bi-fins attempt I could feel the current vibrating the line in front of my face and I felt quite tired on the way up. It’s a nice feeling to surpass the 110m mark.”

Alexey on top (photo by Laura Babahekian)
Alexey surfacing to a new WR (photo by Laura Babahekian)

AIDA judge and President Carla Hanson said:

Alexey’s dive was superb — strong and very clean. Alexey completed his new bi-fins world record in a dive time of 4 minutes and :06 seconds.

Alexey’s very strong dive came on the heels of an unimaginable dive from Alessia Zecchini of Italy. The lithe Italian freediver had already set a CMAS world record in the Constant Weight No-fins (CNF) discipline earlier in the competition, equaling her own AIDA record of 73 meters (239.5 feet) using only her hands and her feet.

But for Zecchini to come back in an on-going volley with Alenka Artnik, one short day after the athletic Alenka set a new CMAS World Record to 111 meters (364 feet) on a super clean performance, and to respond immediately with an announced attempt of 112 meters (367 feet) seemed like madness.

Alessia "La Freccia" Zecchini
Alessia “La Freccia” Zecchini (photo by Alex St. Jean)

Zecchini kept her arms above her head like an arrow (“La Freccia“) on her descent to 112 meters; she maintained this arm position on her ascent. Upon surfacing Alessia spun erratically around the line, (seemingly searching for the rope or the  judges,) when she completed her dive using a monofin. Alessia was slower than her announced dive time of 3:40 but in a final dive time of 3 mins and :56 seconds she realized the deepest CMAS World Record for a female ever.

I was a little bit more than ‘a little bit’ narc’d at the surface,” giggled Zecchini. “It was hard for me at the beginning of the dive, because there was current and the line was moving, but when I started to freefall everything was okay. My equalization was perfect, my turn was perfect and I tried to be very focused on my ascent because I was feeling the narcosis. At the end of the dive, I lost the rope for a minute but then I removed my goggles, signaled, found the line and finished okay. Now we can celebrate!

Stay tuned to Deeperblue.com in the coming days as the official CMAS World Championships will start in a couple of days and more amazing freediving is sure to be revealed.

(Feature photo of Alessia courtesy of Laura Babahekian)

Francesca Koe
Francesca Koehttps://www.deeperblue.com/
An active ocean advocate, VP of U.S. Freediving, a multi-agency dive instructor, PFI Safety Supervisor and AIDA judge, Francesca also serves as the Editor-At-Large here at DeeperBlue.com. You can usually find Francesca diving in the kelp, hanging out at the Farallones with sharky friends, or trying to improve upon her own PB's.

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