Poland’s Matt Malina and Julia Kozerska came out on top of the men’s and women’s leaderboards on Day 1 of the CMAS Indoor Pool Freediving World Championship in Kuwait.
Malina swam 228.8m/750.66ft in the Dynamic No Fins (DNF) discipline. France’s Guillaume Bourdila got the silver medal with a 226.52m/746.46ft swim, and Italy’s Paolo Fontana swam 210.64m/691.08ft to nab a bronze medal.
On the women’s side, Poland’s Julia Kozerska earned a gold medal with her 200m/656.17ft swim, while her countrywoman Magdalena Solich-Talanda came in second with a 187.1m/613.85ft effort. Spain’s Gemma Catala rounded out the podium with a 168.88m/554.07ft swim for the bronze.
In the men’s Masters (ages 50-54) category, Greece’s Aris Ioannidis successfully defended his title from the previous year and brought home the gold medal with a 144.49m/474.05ft swim. The silver medal went to Hungary’s Andras Mayer with his 142.35m/467.03ft swim, and the bronze medal was won by France’s Arnault Manner for his 124.83m/409.55ft swim. No women competed in this age category.
In the men’s 55-59 age category, Poland’s Grzegorz Mucha won first place with a 134.43m/441.04ft swim. The silver medal went to Belgium’s Marc Verstappen who swam 126.55m/415.19ft, and the bronze medal went to Australia’s Frederic Maire with an 89.31m/293ft swim.
The gold medal for the women’s 55-59 age group went to Laurence Gueguen from France who swam 134.4m/440.94ft, followed by Germany’s Eva Hinz with a 66.68m/218.77ft swim and Maie Albader from Kuwait with a 49.16m/161.29ft dive.
In the men’s 60-64 category, Italy’s Francesco Franceschinis earned first place with 119.1m/390.75ft, Germany’s Hans-Jurgen Lenzen got silver with 73.94m/242.59ft and third place went to Chile’s Alberto Giannini with 65m/213.25ft.
In the male juniors category, the gold medal went to France’s Jules Forest with a 128.75m/422.41ft, while Nida Bulut from Turkey nabbed the silver medal with 113.26m/371.59ft and the bronze medal went to Muhammad Bin Aedi Faizal from Malaysia with a 50m/164.04ft dive.
In the female junior category, Ecuador’s Sabine Manz won the gold medal for her dive of 108.04m/354.46ft, followed by Turkey’s Akar Alya who won the silver medal with 103.15m/338.42ft and her countrywoman Toprak Toprak who nabbed the bronze medal with an 80.24m/263.25ft dive.
Day 2 of the competition will feature the Dynamic with Bifins (DYN-BF) discipline, Day 3 will be the Static Apnea (STA) discipline and the last day will have the Dynamic with Monofin (DYN) discipline.
Check out the replay of Day 1 (in Arabic), as well as the results below.
