Day 3 of the Vertical Blue 2022 freediving competition at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas saw five new national records set, including a monster one for Poland’s Mateusz Malina.
RELATED: Vertical Blue 2022: Everything You Need To Know
Additionally, seven other national record attempts didn’t quite make it.
Poland’s Mateusz “Matt” Malina dove to 124m/407ft for a national record in the Free Immersion (FIM) discipline.
RELATED: Freediving Disciplines Explained
Four More National Records Set
On the men’s side, Mexico’s Pepe Salcedo dove to 102m/335ft in the FIM discipline, and Peru’s Juan Valdivia nabbed a national record with a 67m/220ft Constant Weight with Bifins (CWTB) dive.
As for the women, Hungary’s Fatima Korok shrugged off her failed FIM national record attempt from Day 2 to achieve a 56m/184ft Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) dive on Day 3. And South Africa’s Talya Davidoff added to her FIM national record from Day 1 with a 55m/180ft CNF dive.
And More Red Cards
Seven other national record attempts fell short, with Taiwan’s Michael Zhi-Da Ko’s second attempt at a 93m/305ft CWTB dive resulting in a blackout, and China’s Potti Lau also tried for a 93m dive in the same discipline but only managed 91m/299ft. Japan’s Hikaru Chinomi was gunning for a 68m/199ft CNF dive but suffered a blackout. And Barbados’s Alex Davis was scheduled to attempt an 80m/262ft CWTB dive but didn’t try it.
In an Instagram post, Davis wrote:
“Where to even begin with my VB2022 journey. Training was going great for 2.5 weeks, enjoying every single deep dive, every success, every new PB and even every mistake was a pleasure because I’m here, in my favorite place to freedive and grateful for the opportunity to compete at this competition with the help from my sponsor @kaijucap. Then, out of no where, for seemingly no reason, I’ve been plagued with tension migraines that appear suddenly at depth and stop me in my tracks. Day 1 was no different and I simply dove to 20m with @daanverhoevenfreediver to make use of my time to snap a couple photos despite the pain & agony I was under.
“Today (Day 3) unfortunately is no better and I have had to DNS (cancel my dive). I’ve consulted with multiple medical professionals and there isn’t really any concrete or definitive diagnosis other than something is off with my sinuses and I need to rest & hydrate.”
On the women’s side, Turkey’s Sahika Ercumen couldn’t add to her Day 1 Constant Weight with Monofin (CWT) national record when her 92m/302ft FIM dive resulted in a blackout. In an Instagram post, she said:
“Sometimes it is red card… Sometimes we win, sometimes we learn. I blacked out today. I was very excited for this dive even I did it in the training and later we found out we miscalculated and I had extra 400gram on me then usual 🙂 I could still make the dive but I couldn’t… It is part of the game… Now I will rest, recover and keep going <3 Thank you for all support, our amazing safety and medical team, my friends, my coach and all my sponsors.”
Spain’s Isabel Sanchez-Aran sought a 79m/259ft CWT national record but came up short at 73m/239.5ft, and Mexico’s Camila Jaber was gunning for a 78m/256ft CWTB dive but only managed 74m/243ft.
Diveye Videos ‘Fixed’
There has been some frustration expressed by online viewers who saw the Diveye stream struggling with issues with bandwidth onsite for uploading and the online servers overloaded with people logging on. Organizers, in a post on the Vertical Blue Facebook Page, said:
“VB2022 DAY 2 sessions FIXED!
“VB2022 DAY 1 sessions 1 and 3 Fixed, working on sessions 2.
“Whenever we experience connectivity issues from this remote location during the day, we will upload glitch-less streams from all daily sessions later on the same day.
“This way all the Users who have access to the streaming platform can enjoy good quality coverage of all the dives.
“To access live stream and recordings from previous days go to https://2022.verticalblue.net/news/“
VB2022 DAY 2 sessions FIXED!VB2022 DAY 1 sessions 1 and 3 Fixed, working on sessions 2.Whenever we experience…
Posted by Vertical Blue on Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Full Day 3 Results
With Thursday, August 4th being a rest day, competition resumes on Friday.
Check out the full Day 3 results below!
Photos of Day 3
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.
