Pan Pacific Championship 2015

The Australian Freediving Association hosted the inaugural Pan Pacific Pool Freediving Championship (Pan Pacs) Brisbane from 26 to 28 November, 2015. Pan Pacs was a three-day world record status competition for the disciplines of static apnea, dynamic apnea without fins and dynamic apnea with fins.

Pan Pacs was open to competitors from any nationality, however, there were special awards for competitors from Pan Pacs nations (see below).

Pan Pacs was an Association Internationale pour le Développement de l’Apnée (AIDA International) world record status event and was conducted under AIDA International rules. AIDA International is the peak body for competitive freediving, and the Australian Freediving Association is a full member of the AIDA Assembly.

There were 45 athletes from 16 nationalities (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, USA, China, Japan, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Russia, Venezuela, Kuwait, Iran, Germany, Great Britain, and Egypt). See below for a full list of athletes.

Pan Pacific Countries

For the purposes of this competition, Pan Pacific countries are those nations that have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean, and/or are part of a continent around the Pacific rim. So, countries in Asia, North America, Central America, and South America are considered Pan Pacific countries. This includes countries such as Russia, Iran, Singapore, and Argentina. Athletes from overseas territories of the Pacific (e.g. New Caledonia) are considered Pan Pac athletes if they are a citizen of the governing State and either 1) they were born the in the territory, 2) at least one parent or grandparent was born in the territory, or 3) they have resided in the territory for at least 2 years.

Results Summary

Pan Pacs was live streamed, and the footage has been archived on the AFA’s youtube channel.

Pan Pacific Champions

The overall winners were the athletes with the highest number of points. Points were allocated as per the AIDA International rules, which are 0.2 points per second in static apnea, and 0.5 points per metre in dynamic apnea, and dynamic apnea without fins.

In the women’s the winner was New Zealander Kathryn Nevatt with 238.5 points, with Australia’s Lucja Nowowiejski second on 165.2, points and Singapore’s Michelle Ooi third on 160.4 points.

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In the men’s division the winner was Russian Alexey Molchanov with 295.2 points. Second and third was a New Zealand affair, with Ant Williams claiming second on 273.7 over Chris Marshall on 269.5.

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Country overall
There was also a competition for the best Pan Pac country. This was calculated using the best three performances for each discipline from each country (where a minimum of one performance in each discipline had to be by a female). New Zealand was the convincing winner with 781.7 points, followed by Australia with 685.7 points, and relative newcomer Singapore with 510.7.

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Static Apnea Winners

Kathryn Nevatt of New Zealand won the women’s division with a performance of 6min 50sec, with Aussie Amber Bourke coming in second with 5min 35sec, and Singaporean Michelle Ooi getting 4min 37sec.

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Russian Alexey Molchanov won the men’s division with an impressive performance of 8min 01sec. New Zealander Ant Williams came second with 7min 01sec, while Pierre Crubillé of New Caledonia came third with 6min 44sec.

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Dynamic Apnea without fins

Kathryn Nevatt of New Zealand also won the no fins discipline with 141m. Gemma Cookson, also of New Zealand, came second with 114m, and Lucja Nowowiejski of Australia rounded out the top three with 110m.

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Aussie Leigh Woolley won the men’s dynamic no fins discipline, and in doing so set a new Australian record of 184m. Never far from the pointy end of the field, Alexey Molchanov of Russia came second with 164m, and New Zealander Chris Marshall came third with 159m.

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Dynamic Apnea

The final day for the women brought a new discipline winner in Australia’s Amber Bourke, who did 183m, with New Zealand’s Kathryn Nevatt not far behind on 172m, and China’s Jessea Lu doing 157m.

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For the men it was some familiar faces, with Alexey Molchanov of Russia swimming 236m to judge edge out New Zealand’s Chris Marshall who set the early benchmark for the day of 230m. Fellow Kiwi Ant Williams put in a strong display to get 223m to get third.

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National Records

There were a slew of National Records set at Pan Pacs!

Australia
Leigh Woolley: DNF 184m

Egypt
Ayman Abdin: DNF 100m
Ayman Abdin: DYN 106m

Indonesia
Nora Lestari: DNF 57m
Nora Lestari: DYN 81m

Kuwait
Mariam Alquattan: DNF 41m
Mariam Alquattan: DYN 71m (Arvo comp)

Malaysia
Azam Hamid: STA 5min 29sec

Singapore
Jonathan Chong: STA 6min 17s
Jonathan Chong: DNF 117m
Jonathan Chong: DYN 146m
Valerie Chia: DYN 121m
Michelle Ooi: DYN 125m
Valerie Chia: DYN 135m (Arvo comp)

Sponsors

The organisers are extremely grateful to the following sponsors for their support.
Platinum Sponsors

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Gold Sponsors

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Silver Sponsors

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Out of Competition Events

Pan Pacs is more than just a competition, events outside of competition were run so that everyone involved had the opportunity to learn and develop. The events run were:

• Judge course(Jean-Pol Francois)
• Judge refresher course (Jean-Pol Francois)
• Workshop: Monofins and other equipment for freediving (with CWT World Record holder Alexey Molchanov)
• Workshop: Static apnea workshop (Kathryn Nevatt)
• Workshop: Bi-fins workshop (Ant Judge)
• Workshop: No fins workshop (Kathryn Nevatt)
• Discussion: “Where to from here? Pan Pacs and improving regional cooperation” (Michael Bates)
• Workshop: A two day post competition pool workshop (Alexey Molchanov)
• Workshop: A two day pre-competition workshop on psychological preparation for freediving competitions (Marina Kazankova)

Detailed results

Overall Results

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Pan Pac countries

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Static Apnea results

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Dynamic apnea without fins results

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Dynamic Apnea results

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Complete list of registered athletes

An asterisk (*) indicates a Pan Pac athlete.

Number	First Name	Last name	Gender	Nationality
1*	Catherine	Christie	F	AUS
2*	Nora	Lestari	F	INA
3*	Amber	Bourke	F	AUS
4*	Azam	Hamid	M	MAS
5*	Mikhael	Dominico	M	INA
6*	Walter	Johnson	M	USA
7*	Chris	Marshall	M	NZL
8*	Michelle	Ooi	F	SIN
9*	Kimberley	Chai	F	MAS
10*	Pejman	Siavoshi	M	IRI
11*	Frederic	Maire	M	AUS
12*	Jonathan	Chong	M	SIN
13	Paul	McKeown	M	GBR
14*	Leigh	Woolley	M	AUS
15*	Lewis	Jones	M	NZL
16*	Pierre	Crubillé	M	FRA/NCL
17*	Ant	Williams	M	NZL
18*	Valerie	Chia	F	SIN
19*	Lauren	Cameo	F	AUS
20*	Craig	de Vos	M	AUS
21*	Shiro	Kawamura	M	JPN
22*	Shigeki	Moriya	M	JPN
23*	Mandy	Sumner	F	USA
24*	Daron	Joseph	M	AUS
25*	Nathalia	Luter	F	MAS
26*	Phil	Clayton	M	NZL
27*	Natasha	Darke	F	AUS
28	Markus	Jerger	M	GER
29*	Jessea	Lu	F	CHN
30*	Jack	Hatfield	M	AUS
31*	Liangzhuo	Hou	M	AUS
32*	Kathryn	Nevatt	F	NZL
33*	Gemma	Cookson	F	NZL
34*	Lucja	Nowowiejski	F	AUS
35*	Mariam	Alqattan	F	KWT
36*	Adam	Sellars	M	AUS
37*	Anh	Tu	F	AUS
38*	Jodie	Murphy	F	AUS
39*	Alexey	Molchanov	M	RUS
40*	Brent	Quilliam	M	AUS
41*	Andrew	Kelly	M	AUS
42*	Mark	Williams	M	AUS
43*	Grégory	Noguier	M	FRA/NCL
44*	Luis	Ramirez	M	VEN
45	Ayman	Abdin	M	EGY