In a touching tribute to the Freediving hero Natalia Molchanova, who disappeared in the Mediterranean back in August 2015, the two athletes with the best overall performances in the 2015 AIDA Individual Depth Championships (#aidaworldchampionship) received the “Natalia Mochanova” award.
Sayuri Kinoshita (Japan) and Goran Colak (Croatia) were stunned to receive the special award, that featured a medal and commemorative plaque, during the closing ceremony on Saturday 19th September.
In a Facebook statement Colak had this to say:
“Before going to first depth World championship of my career, after training depth for only 2 months in Croatia, my expectations were modest. So winning silver medal in CWT, and overall first place that was awarded with Natalia Molchanova memorial award felt totally amazing and unreal! On top of that I broke all three national records in depth disciplines, so now I hold all 6 national records in Croatia, pool and depth. I would also like to say big thank you to Tijana Nikolic and Samo Jeranko, for helping me get here and for training with me during all this time.”
You can images from their performances during the competition below. Photos are courtesy of Daan Verhoeven – athletes who are interested in purchasing copies of their photos should head to his website or contact him via Facebook.
