The final day of OriginECN Vertical Blue has concluded in spectacular style.
The 10th anniversary of the “Wimbledon of Freediving” finished on Thursday with Alexey Molchanov (Russia) and Alessia Zecchini (Italy) securing their Gold medals and top podium places. Showing how strong the women have been in this competition Zecchini actual scored more total points that Molchanov with a 0.05 final point difference.
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Silver medals went to William Trubridge (New Zealand) and Sayuri Kinoshita (Japan), whilst Bronze medals for Homar Leuci (Italy) and Alenka Artnik (Slovenia).
The competition has also seen an unprecedented number of records set – never before in the history of freediving competitions have a total of 10 World Records and 42 National Records been set in a single competition. The judges had to bring so many anti-doping test kits that they had their own baggage allowance on the flight over!
The records include – 2 World Records by Alexey Molchanov (Russia), 4 by Alessia Zecchini (Italy), 2 by Sayuri Kinoshita (Japan), 1 by Hanako Hirose (Japan) and 1 by Alenka Artnik (Slovenia).
The final day saw two of those World Records with epic battles for Women’s Free Immersion (FIM) and Constant Weight (CWT). Sayuri Kinoshita (Japan) secured the final say on FIM as she successfully dived 97m in 3min 56secs to claim the World Record, whilst Alessia Zecchini (Italy) saw off Hanako Hirose (Japan), who suffered a blackout on her attempt, by diving 107m successfully for the CWT World Record.
The final also saw 6 successful National Records:
- Samo Jeranko (Slovenia) with 106m Free Immersion (FIM)
- Stig Pryds (Denmark) with 105m Constant Weight (CWT)
- Alejandro Lemus (Mexico) with 103m Constant Weight (CWT)
- Michael Board (Great Britain) with 102m Free Immersion (FIM)
- Andriy Khvetkevych (Ukraine) with 71m Constant Weight No-Fins (CNF)
- Sun Young Kim (Korea) with 41m Constant Weight No-Fins (CNF)
Official full results are available below (click to enlarge):
Two onsite photographers – Daan Verhoeven and Alex St-Jean – are capturing the action during each day! Check out some of the action from Day 9 below (click to see them in full screen):
Whilst the competition has been lived streamed by Diveye and broadcast on the Vertical Blue Facebook Page, the internet connection failed during the final day so you can watch the first two sessions embedded below or via Youtube.
Feature photo by Alex St-Jean
