Day 8 of Vertical Blue at Dean’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas saw Ukraine’s Kateryna Sadurska extend by a meter the world record she set two days earlier in the Constant Weight No Fins (CNF) discipline.
Sadurska dove to 77m/523ft and got a hearty applause and splashing once the white card was shown.
Day 8 saw the fewest number of athletes do dives, with only 12 attempts out of 13 listed.
Four National Records Set
Four more national records fell on Day 8, three of them by women.
- Hungary’s Fatima Korok dove to 86m/282ft in the Constant Weight with Monofin (CWT) discipline, adding a national record to her trophy case only days after her World Record Free Immersion (FIM) dive and her national record CNF dive.
- Australia’s Amber Bourke swam to 81m/266ft in the CWT discipline, a day after she had to turn back early on a similar dive.
- South Africa’s Talya Davidoff successfully dove to 56m/184ft in the CNF discipline, a measure of redemption after earning a red card in that discipline on Day 6 and adding to her national records in the FIM and CWT disciplines.
- Peru’s Juan Valdivia dove to a national record 57m/184ft in the FIM discipline, adding to his Day 2 and Day 5 CWT national records.
A Few Challenges
Not everyone came away with white cards on this day, though.
- Forty-seven-year-old “elder statesman” freediver David Carrera from Italy successfully dove to 75m/246ft in the CNF discipline but was judged to have blacked out at the surface and got a red card.
- Tunisia’s Walid Boudhiaf dove to 115m/377ft in the CWT discipline but drew a red card for blacking out on the way up at around the 22m/72ft mark.
- Switzerland’s Florian Burghardt had targeted a 60m/197ft CNF dive but turned back early at 50m/164ft and drew a yellow card.
- Colombia’s Alex Llinas also got yellow for turning back at 73m/240ft on an 86m/282ft Constant Weight with Bifins (CWTB) attempt.
Results
Check out the full results below and the video replay of all the day’s dives.
Photos Courtesy of Daan Verhoeven. Additional Reporting by Francesca Koe in the Bahamas
