Day 1 of the Vertical Blue 2022 freediving competition at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas saw one world record and eight national records set, as well as one failed world record attempt.
RELATED: Vertical Blue 2022: Everything You Need To Know
AIDA World Record by Arnaud Jerald
In the Constant Weight with Bifins (CWTB) discipline, France’s Arnaud Jerald dove to 117m/558ft for a new AIDA world record. Although readers will note it is not announced as a World Record on the official results as it is not an absolute depth record, with the CMAS record standing at 118m by Alexey Molchanov set in 2021.
RELATED: Freediving Disciplines Explained
8 National Records Set
Additionally, the USA’s Enchante Gallardo dove to 85m/279ft for a new women’s CWTB national record, and Spain’s Alfredo Roen set a men’s national record with a dive to the same depth. Mexico’s Camila Jaber earned a white card and a women’s national record with a 75m/246ft dive.
The Constant Weight (CWT) discipline saw three women’s national records set: Turkey’s Sahika Ercumen successfully dove to 94m/308ft; South Korea’s Jung A Kim dove to 89m/292ft; and Belgium’s Marine Simonis dove to 655m/213ft.
For the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) discipline, Mexico’s Pedro Tapia set a new men’s national record with a 74m/243ft dive.
And in the Free Immersion (FIM) discipline, South Africa’s Talya Davidoff dove to 70m/230ft for a women’s national record.
Alenka’s Impressive Attempt Fell Short
Slovenia’s Alenka Artnik was gunning for a women’s world record 123m/404ft CWT dive but ran out of steam in the final few meters and had the safety divers escort her to the surface for disqualification and earned a red card.
In an Instagram post, Artnik wrote:
“I was wondering when it will happen… 😛
Today’s dive unfortunatelly wasn’t successful. At the last part of the dive I felt strong hypoxia and so started pulling up on the rope. Surfacing I was breathing on my own but feeling disappointed. It’s part of the sport, c’est la vie. Thank you safety for the ride and for being there <3
Hopefully I can get some good night sleep and come back stronger.
Congratulations to everyone that have successfuly made their dive.”
Diveye Live Streaming Struggled
There was also some frustration expressed by online viewers who saw the Diveye stream struggling with issues with the bandwidth onsite for upload and the online servers overloaded with people logging on.
According to a post on the Vertical Blue Facebook Page, bandwidth has been increased onsite, which should help resolve issues for viewers.
Full Day 1 Results & Day 2 Start List
Check out the full results from Vertical Blue Day 1 below:
The start list for Day 2 looks equally impressive, with another 8 National Record attempts and 3 Continental Records looking to be set!
Photos of Day 1
You can check out our gallery of photos courtesy of Daan Verhoeven below.
Vertical Blue 2022 Coverage
If you want to find out the highlights and details from every day of the competition, then check back with DeeperBlue.com as our team provides daily updates and wrap up’s throughout the competition. You should also keep an eye out on our socials for highlights from the competition.
We’ve covered every year of the competition since 2008, so you can check out this year’s coverage and all previous years in our Vertical Blue archive.
Vertical Blue is always an exciting event to watch, so stay tuned to DeeperBlue.com and our social media feeds for updates, and sign up for the live feed from Diveye on the Vertical Blue website to watch in real-time.
Feature Photo by Daan Verhoeven
— With on-site reporting from Francesca Koe and additional reporting by Stephan Whelan.
