Today 8th October 2017, the European Freediving Championship in Kas, Turkey has been completed in the depth disciplines where the Croatian team had an extremely successful campaign; taking medals in every discipline, proving to be one of the most successful diving teams in the world!
Today the European Freediving Championship in Kas, Turkey concluded and in the best possible way – one of Croatia’s most successful divers Lidija Lijić, who holds multiple world records and many medals for various disciplines, took gold in the Jump Blue (JB) discipline.
“I’m glad I had the chance to dive this discipline again, they were not the best conditions but this is always the case with outdoor sports and adds an extra charm to everything. It was extremely cold, which cost many competitors and slightly diluted the competition, and it is much more difficult to prepare for a dive in cold conditions. I really gave 100% in this dive, I was shivering at the start, but somehow, I mustered the energy for my best score in JB. It’s a great feeling to climb to the highest podium, especially with a personal best.”
Mirela Kardašević came 3rd in JB, taking her second medal after placing 3rd in CNF. We wrote about previous results (see full article here) but to summarise:
Lidija and Mirela after JB ceremony
Mihaela Romić set a new National record in CWTBF (diving to depth with bi-fin) with 71-metres, winning bronze.
In CNF, the most technically difficult discipline, Croatia’s Vitomir Maričić came 4th, just missing the podium and Boris Milošić in 6th.
Goran Čolak, Croatia’s best diver won gold and set a new World Record in the CNF and silver in CWT behind Russian Alexey Molchanov. In Goran’s last discipline CWBF (diving with bi-fins), he had a dive of 105 m, and was technically 2nd; however, he was stripped of this after disputes. On his Facebook he posted this:
“I think both Alexey Molchanov and I did super solid dives to 108 m and 105 m. The problem with my dive was the small pull just before surfacing. Within the rules, you can penalise that with 5m and that is exactly what the main judge did. I was still 2nd because I had more than a 10m advantage over the next guy. But, of course, as it always is, after many hours of protests from the French team, joined later by the Italians, after midnight I was stripped of the silver medal and disqualified. That is the behaviour we see over and over in Freediving, people trying to DQ a 15m deeper dive for themselves just to get the medal they don’t deserve.
Nevertheless, that was the European Championship in short. This year was not bad after all I guess, with winning Dubai and 4 gold and 2 silver medals from pool and Depth European combined.”
Regardless, the Croatian team proved they are a team of champions, they won medals in all disciplines and confirmed that they are one of the most successful diving teams in the world!
Bravo to all, time to breathe again and prepare for new adventures! Next month, Lidija Lijić and Vitomir Maričić are planning to head to the Himalayas in an attempt to set a new World Record, we look forward to following them!
