Great success of Polish people at Minsk Freediving Championship!

Freediving in Belarus does not have a long tradition. Only two years ago the first national championship was held there and… the only one, because last year it did not take place. Fortunately, in 2017, there was again energy and willingness to hold the Belarusian Freediving Championships in the pool. The competition was organized in the open formula, creating an opportunity for freedivers from abroad to compete. Poles, of course, did not fail to take advantage of this situation.

The competition took place on 28-29 October, in Minsk. The capital of Belarus has many sports complexes, some really nice swimming pools and on two of them the participants could compete. On the first day STA and DNF competitions were held in a short pool – 25 metres, with slightly warmer water of 29ºC. The DYN competition took place in another pool, where the distance between the end walls was 50 metres.

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Although the freediving competition in Belarus is in its infancy, it must be admitted that the number of competitors, as for the second national championship, is quite high. The total number of participants was 31, with only 8 from abroad. Apart from Poles, there were also Russians and Lithuanians.

Poland was represented by three freedivers – Agnieszka Kalska, Marcin Baranowski and Maciej Brzozowski. Despite the fact that it was not the full strength of the Polish team, the Poles showed how strong they are in the pool freediving disciplines, winning as many as 7 medals altogether. Their performance deserves all the more applause, because the results achieved were better than their life records.

In the first competition, which was STA, the Belarusians showed a very high level. The winner held his breath for 7 minutes and 49 seconds and thus set a new national record. Marcin and Maciej took 8th and 11th place respectively, with results of 5 min 13 sec and 4 min 34 sec. Among women, the first place was taken by Agnieszka, with the time of 5 min 30 sec, and the best result of Belarusian Natallija Churilina, 4 min 57 sec, was however weaker than the national record.

After a longer break and reorganisation of the starting point, the competitors had to “race” at a distance in the DNF competition, the so-called “frog under water”. Poles had their great triumph in this discipline, winning in both categories. First, Maciej improved his personal best by diving 58 metres, and then Marcin covered 131 metres winning the men’s classification. Belarusian Zaikin Alyaksandr came in second with 125 metres and also set a new national record. The best Belarusian in this discipline was Katsiaryna Spiryna, who swam 81 metres and was also the main organiser of the competition(!).

The last series was started by Agnieszka, whose declaration to swim 123 metres (i.e. in order to obtain a white card she could not emerge earlier) encouraged many people to stay in the pool until the end and cheer for her. A slight excitement and anticipation for a good result could be felt in the atmosphere. Perhaps that was what helped her achieve a very good result, which is also her official life record in this competition. Our representative confidently landed at 165 metres!

On the second day the competitors had to cover as much distance as possible under water on one breath, but this time using fins or mono fins. Belarusians showed their class in this discipline and improved the country records in both men and women categories. Zaikin Alyaksandr, having swum 183 metres, became not only the new record holder but also the winner of this competition.

Marcin in mono fin was also very successful and with 173 metres he took the second place, setting a new personal best. Maciej, with 81 metres, added his third white card to the set, his third personal best and a great performance at his first foreign competition. In women’s category the first place was won by Agnieszka, who swam 215 metres and improved her personal record by 10 metres. The national record and second place in fin dynamics was won by Natallia Churilina swimming 131 metres.

The closing ceremony of the competition and the awarding of the winners took place in an intimate hall, where everyone received a commemorative diploma, and the winners valuable prizes and beautiful medals, prepared to commemorate this sporting event. The general classification was as follows:

On behalf of the Polish competitors, we would like to thank the organizers for the great fun, fantastic cheering and support before and after the start. We felt as if we were at home, because as it turned out, many of the competitors have among their ancestors Poles, who after the separation from Poland of the Eastern Borderlands, remained in their lands, today belonging to Belarus. In turn, the grandparents of our players – Agnieszka and Marcin – come from areas belonging to Poland before World War II, and are now in Belarus.

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