Thursday, March 28, 2024

Vertical Blue 2022: Day 5 – Six New National Records and a Continental Record

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Another great day of competition at the Vertical Blue 2022 freediving competition at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas, with Day 5 seeing six national records set, along with a Free Immersion (FIM) continental record.

RELATED: Vertical Blue 2022: Everything You Need To Know

USA’s Enchante Gallardo Continental Record

A North American record fell with USA’s Enchante Gallardo completing an 87m/285ft Free Immersion (FIM) dive for the National Record and overall Continental Record.

RELATED: Freediving Disciplines Explained

On Instagram, Enchante gave some background to the equalization challenges leading up to the record:

“The past few days have been somewhat of an emotional roller coaster. I started off the comp with a National Record dive to 85m with Bi-fins! I was so excited to start off this competition on the right foot, especially compared to the struggles I faced last year in VB with equalization. I was already doing dives in training I had hoped to achieve before the competition started. With a few challenges along the way concerning EQ, I was still making better progress and I felt much more prepared this time around. Previous to today’s dive, I turned early due to issues with EQ. I felt disappointment, but after much introspection and advice from friends and fellow athletes, I made the choice to be happy no matter what the outcome. Diving here in this amazing place, surrounded by amazing humans and inspiring athletes, is a win!

Today I received a white card for my dive of 87m FIM (Free Immersion). I am extremely thankful to everyone who was a part of this experience near and far, rooting for me, believing in me when I doubted myself. Thank you to all the amazing safeties who have been out there everyday in the water working hard to keep the athletes safe, to the medical team, judges and event organizers for making everything possible! To my roomie and amazing friend @fatimakorok.freediver for being by my side on this journey here! Strong women supporting women!! ?????? Thank you to my mom who is my biggest fan and best friend! Shout out to my little nuggets back at home! I love you guys very much! I am proud to be here representing Hawaii and the US.
Thank you to my supporters!”

Six National Records Set

In Constant Weight (CWT), we saw national records by Croatia’s Vitomir Maricic with a 80m/262ft dive.  Taiwain’s Yun-Chieh Ku also dove into the record books with a 108m/354ft performance.  Juan Valdivia from Peru also set a 69m/226ft national record in the Constant Weight Bi-Fins (CWTB) discipline.

Free Immersion (FIM) also saw another record set, with Hungary’s Fatima Korok diving 96m/315ft and the continental record Enchante set.

In the Constant Weight No-Fins (CNF) discipline, we saw two records: Spain’s Isabel Sanchez-Aran dove 55m/180ft and Taiwan’s Michael Zhi-Da Ko diving 64m/210ft.

Full Day 5 Results & Day 6 Start List

Check out the full results from Vertical Blue Day 5 below. There will also be a memorial to remember former AIDA President Carla Sue Hanson, who passed away in 2020 after a battle with cancer.

Vertical Blue 2022 Day 5 Results
Vertical Blue 2022 Day 5 Results

The start list for Day 6 sees 10 National Record attempts and 2 Continental Records looking to be set!

Vertical Blue 2022 Day 6 Start List
Vertical Blue 2022 Day 6 Start List

Photos of Day 5

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.

DeeperBlue.com - Vertical Blue 2022 Coverage

Feature Photo by Daan Verhoeven

With on-site reporting from Francesca Koe and additional reporting by Stephan Whelan.

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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