Molchanov extends world record

AFP | Ajaccio, France

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Three days after blacking out on the point of equalling one freediving world record, Alexey Molchanov broke another at the World Championships off Corsica on Tuesday.

The Russian reached a depth of 125 meters, in the ‘constant weight with bifin’ (CWTB) category at the International Association for the Development of Freediving (AIDA) world championships in the Gulf of Ajaccio.

That broke his own world record by two metres in a discipline in which divers wear separate flippers on each feet but may only pull on the guide rope once, when they turn to ascend.

They are not allowed to discard any weights they are using to help them descend to their target depth, although Molchanov usually dives without weights.

On Saturday, Molchanov had attempted to match his own record of 100 metres, set off Honduras last year, in constant weight freediving without any fins, the most difficult discipline.

This time, ascending from the much colder depths of the Gulf of Ajaccio, he blacked out two meters from the surface. As a result, he received a red card, disqualifying him.

The Russian also holds AIDA’s world record in constant weight with a monofin at 136 metres and in variable weight at 156 metres.

Molchanov is the son of freediver Natalia Molchanova, herself the holder of 41 world records and 23 world champion titles, who died while diving in August 2015 in Formentera in the Balearic Islands.