Results of the final competition day

On June 24th, the last day of the 28th AIDA World Championship in Burgas, athletes competed in DYN.

Among the women, events played out as forecasted. Magdalena Solich-Talanda of Poland dived 265m (869ft), proving herself to be the strongest female athlete in DYN and winning the gold medal. Teammate Julia Kozerska renewed her official personal best (PB) with a 260m (853ft) dive and became the Vice-Champion in DYN. Kateryna Sadurska of Ukraine confidently finished her dive at 244m (801ft) and almost made it to third place. However, due to her protests in recent days, Kateryna focused on pronouncing “I’m okay” loud and clear, but unfortunately forgot to show the OK sign. Sadly, Kateryna received a red card for her surface protocol and the bronze medal went to Yasuko Ozeki of Japan. She performed a 214m (702ft) dive and set a new AIDA Continental Record for Asia. Congratulations to all of the amazing women!

A historical event among the men occured. For the first time in an AIDA competition, a male athlete turned at 300m (984ft) to set a new AIDA World Record of 301m (988ft). To our surprise, the hero of the day was not Chinese athlete Ming Jin (Willian Joy), whose official PB of 296m (971ft) is only 5m/16ft away from a new AIDA World Record. Instead, French athlete Guillaume Bourdila made history in DYN, even though this was his first time participating in an AIDA competition. A huge round of applause to Guillaume!

Meanwhile, William did not display any dynamic performances that are close to his PBs. William swam a distance of 257m (843ft) with his monofin and fell 1m (3ft) behind the cutoff for the podium, placing him in fourth.

With a result of 258m (846ft), David Čustić of Croatia finally made it to the podium with a bronze medal. David has also shown excellent results in DYNB and DNF, but failed to receive a white card for both performances due to mistakes made in surface protocol. Congratulations, David!

Only 1m (3ft) separated second and third place. The silver medal went to Yueh Shiang Hsu of Chinese Taipei, who swam 259m (850ft) to set a new AIDA Continental Record for Asia. It is his second silver medal and second continental record, and we believe it was his first time competing at an AIDA World Championship. Congratulations to Yueh on his extremely successful debut!

During the four competition days of the 28th AIDA World Championship, athletes performed a total of 360 dives with 2 new AIDA World Records and 5 new AIDA Continental Records, which are as follows:

•  DYNB - Mai Morimura (JPN), 207m/679ft, new Asian Women’s CR
•  DYNB - Yueh Shiang Hsu (TPE), 240m/787ft, new Asian Men’s CR
•  DYNB - Evan Walter (USA), 191m/627ft, new North American Men’s CR
•  DNF - Jarrod Briffa (AUS) 144m/472ft, new Oceanian Men’s CR
•  STA - William Joy (CHN), 8:37,new Asian Men’s CR

The award ceremony was held at the end of the Championship with all of the winners receiving monetary prizes: 1000EUR for first place, 750EUR for second place, and 500EUR for third place.

If you watched the broadcast, you may have noticed that throughout the duration of the entire Championship, French and Polish athletes were leading in most disciplines. We counted the medals that each national team earned, and the results showed that the national team of Poland is the overall winner! In total, Polish athletes won 3 gold, 4 silver, and 3 bronze medals. 

• The French national team won 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal
• The national team of Croatia received 1 gold medal and 2 bronze medals
• The Swedish national team took away 1 gold medal
• The national team of Chinese Taipei will arrive back home with 2 silver medals  One bronze medal went to each of China and Japan’s national teams

On this note, the 28th AIDA World Championship is officially over. Congratulations to all of the athletes and a huge thank you to all the safeties, judges and organizers - you are all incredible for being part of such a big event. What a fantastic competition to witness!