The Extremall 4 competition was held in Olsztyn

Listen to this article The best Polish freedivers came to Olsztyn, the capital of Warmia, last weekend, February 10-11. The reason? The Extremall Freediving 4 competition, which took place on the Kortowskie Lake. 36 free divers competed in the ice covered lake, descending to the depth of about 15m through a pre-cut ice hole. The

ByTomasz Andrukajtis

Published: February 14, 2012 - 11:45

Updated: July 22, 2023 - 06:14

The Extremall 4 competition was held in Olsztyn

Listen to this article

The best Polish freedivers came to Olsztyn, the capital of Warmia, last weekend, February 10-11. The reason? The Extremall Freediving 4 competition, which took place on the Kortowskie Lake. 36 free divers competed in the ice covered lake, descending to the depth of about 15m through a pre-cut ice hole.

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The winner in this good company (3 vice-champions of the world started), turned out to be Robert Cetler, who achieved a time of 5min 57s. On the next steps stood Adrian Kwiatkowski – 4min and Bartek Janiszewski – 2min 45s.

“I don’t know how I did it myself. I was hoping for a result within 5min. I changed my diving technique a bit and started from static. I lay close to the surface for a few minutes and only then dived for the marker,” said the 1st place winner

There were even doubts as to whether this was the correct way to carry out the test, but in the end the judges did not see any inconsistency with the regulations and awarded the victory to Robert.

As befits an extreme discipline, there were moments full of tension and fear. During the attempt of one of our vice world champions – Mateusz Malina, the competitor stayed under water for so long that the competition judge decided to pull out the safety rope, one end of which was tied to the diver. Fortunately, it was a false alarm, and the interested party himself commented on the whole situation as follows:

“I descended to a depth of 14m and when I heard the alarm on my watch after 2min, I started to slowly ascend. Then I felt the rope tug and there was no point in continuing the attempt anymore.”

It should be reminded once again that Extremall is the only freediving competition held in such harsh conditions. Usually freedivers compete against each other in warm seas or pools, where conditions are far more favourable.

A big applause for all the participants and we hope that next year, at the next edition, we will be able to gather an equally respectable group which will improve this year’s results.

Source: Organiser, Divers24

About author

Tomasz Andrukajtis

Editor-in-chief of the DIVERS24 portal and magazine. Responsible for obtaining, translating and developing content. He also supervises all publications. Achived his first diving certification – P1 CMAS, in 2000. Has a degree in journalism and social communication. In the diving industry since 2008.