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Pan Pacs was live streamed, and the footage has been archived on the AFA’s youtube channel.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

Team New Zealand. Rear: John Wright (judge), Ant Williams, Shelley Gurney (volunteer), Kathryn Nevatt, Chris Marshall, Phil Clayton. Front: Tracy Russell (assistant judge), Gemma Cookson, Fran Rose (judge).
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.
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.

Men’s static apnea: Ant Williams (NZL, 2nd), Alexey Molchanov (RUS, 1st), Pierre Crubillé (New Caledonia, 3rd).
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.

Women’s dynamic apnea without fins: Gemma Cookson (NZL, 2nd), Kathryn Nevatt (NZL, 1st), Lucja Nowowiejski (AUS, 3rd)
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.

Men’s dynamic apnea without fins: Alexey Molchanov (RUS, 2nd), Leigh Woolley (AUS, 1st), Chris Marshall (NZL, 3rd)
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.
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.

Men’s Dynamic Apnea: Chris Marshall (NZL, 2nd), Alexey Molchanov (RUS, 1st), Ant Williams (NZL, 3rd)
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
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
Pan Pac countries
Static Apnea results
Dynamic apnea without fins results
Dynamic Apnea results
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 |