Thursday, March 28, 2024
FreedivingOriginECN Vertical Blue 2018 - Day 7 Results & Photos

OriginECN Vertical Blue 2018 – Day 7 Results & Photos

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The last Act of OriginECN Vertical Blue has finished on Tuesday and what an epic day it was.  An unprecedented 14 National Record attempts and 2 World Record attempts were slated on the starting line up, in the history of freediving competitions we’ve never seen such a starting list.  Looking at the announced performances the average depth was 93m which just shows how the conditions and roster of athletes make OriginECN Vertical Blue the premier event in the freediving calendar.

RELATED: Freediving Disciplines Explained

Two world records were slated for Tuesday – Sayuri Kinoshita (Japan) with a 94m Free Immersion (FIM) dive and Alexey Molchanov (Russia) with a 125m Free Immersion (FIM) dive.

Kinoshita was first up for her dive.  The record she was going for had only just been set by Alessia Zecchini (Italy) last Friday with a 93m dive so the pressure was on in this battle of the Titans.  Kinoshita managed a nice clean dive in 3min 50sec to get white cards from the judges and massive cheers from the assembled crowds.  The dive also positions her on points in second place behind Zecchini for the overall competition.

Later in the morning, it was the turn of Molchanov to take to the platform and prepare for his dive.  The record was under challenge on Sunday when current World Record holder William Trubridge (New Zealand) attempted the record but lost his mouthfill early in the dive and aborted his dive.  As Molchanov took to the line to do his breath up a sudden storm hit the dive site which scattered all the spectators and threatened to cooler down Molchanov and threatens his dive.  The weather didn’t seem to worry Molchanov who completed a super clean surface protocol after a huge 4min 37sec dive time.

We have two more days of diving left and we can expect more from both athletes before the competition ends on Thursday.

RELATED: Freediving Disciplines Explained

Tuesday had 14 announced National Records of which 6 were successful:

  • Stig Pryds (Denmark) with 103m Constant Weight (CWT)
  • Adam Stern (Australia) with 99m Free Immersion (FIM)
  • Aolin Wang (China) with 110m Constant Weight (CWT)
  • Martin Zajac (Slovakia) with 106m Constant Weight (CWT)
  • Samo Jeranko (Slovenia) with 104m Free Immersion (FIM)
  • Alex Davis (Barbados) with 55m Constant Weight No-Fins (CNF)

Official full results are available below (click to enlarge):

OriginECN Vertical Blue 2018 - Results Day 7
OriginECN Vertical Blue 2018 – Results Day 7

Two onsite photographers – Daan Verhoeven and Alex St-Jean – are capturing the action during each day!  Check out some of the action from Day 7 below (click to see them in full screen):

The competition will be live-streamed by the underwater drone Diveye and broadcast via the Vertical Blue Facebook Page and across social media with the hashtag #VB2018.

Stay tuned to DeeperBlue.com as we bring you coverage from the event.

Feature photo by Alex St-Jean

Stephan Whelan
Stephan Whelanhttps://www.deeperblue.com
Stephan is the Founder of DeeperBlue.com. His passion for the underwater world started at 8 years old with a try-dive in a hotel pool on holiday that soon formulated into a lifelong love affair with the oceans. In 1996 he set up DeeperBlue.com and has grown the site to be the most popular diving website and community in the world.

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