FreediverRoatán 2026: the CMAS Freediving Depth World Championship, discipline by discipline
Nine competition days, 60 athletes from 22 countries, 209 scored dives and 15 CMAS world records. Alexey Molchanov won all four disciplines, Ukraine topped the senior medal table, and No Fins day cost half the field a red card. Every senior podium, the records, the medal count — and the Masters brackets at the end.
209 dives were scored across the week — 153 white cards, 32 yellow, 24 red — and 15 CMAS world records fell. One athlete, Alexey Molchanov, started four disciplines and won all four.
The 2026 CMAS World Championship Freediving Depth, Roatán, Honduras — 17–26 August 2026.
How the week ran
Each discipline ran as a single session per gender, with the Senior and Masters brackets diving the same rope and being scored separately. The men's Constant Weight was the one exception: it opened the championship on 17 August, was cut short after seven dives, and the rest of the field dived on 21 August.
CMAS streamed the championship; the replays are collected on CMAS TV.
Senior podiums
Constant Weight Men (CWT) — 17 & 21 August
- 🥇 Alexey Molchanov (CMAS1) — 131 m
- 🥈 Pedro Tapia (MEX) — 116 m
- 🥉 Guillaume Bourdila (FRA) — 113 m
Men's Constant Weight — fifteen metres between gold and silver.
Constant Weight Women (CWT) — 18 August
- 🥇 Kateryna Sadurska (UKR) — 108 m
- 🥈 Alessia Zecchini (ITA) — 114 m dived, 106 points (announced 121, early turn)
- 🥉 Mara Guida (ITA) — 105 m
Women's Constant Weight — one point between silver and bronze.
Watch the women's Constant Weight session on CMAS TV
Free Immersion Men (FIM) — 19 August
- 🥇 Alexey Molchanov (CMAS1) — 133 m. New CMAS World Record.
- 🥈 Piotr Kubiak (POL) — 116 m
- 🥈 Martin Ruman (SVK) — 116 m
Kubiak and Ruman both scored 116 on clean dives, so silver is shared and no bronze was awarded. Bourdila's 112 m was fourth.
Men's Free Immersion — a world record for gold, a shared silver behind it.
Watch the men's Free Immersion session on CMAS TV
Free Immersion Women (FIM) — 20 August
- 🥇 Natalia Zharkova (UKR) — 107 m. New CMAS World Record.
- 🥈 Kateryna Sadurska (UKR) — 102 m
- 🥉 Isabel Sánchez-Arán (ESP) — 96 m
Zecchini matched Zharkova's 107 m on the same day but took a red card on surface protocol; Linda Paganelli's 100 m went the same way. Maria Bobela (POL) was fourth on 92 m.
Women's Free Immersion — Zharkova's 107 m is a new CMAS world record.
Watch the women's Free Immersion session on CMAS TV
No Fins Men (CNF) — 23 August
- 🥇 Alexey Molchanov (CMAS1) — 95 m
- 🥈 Pedro Tapia (MEX) — 86 m. New Americas continental record.
- 🥉 Francisco Quesada (ESP) — 77 m
The hardest session of the championship. Of 24 senior dives, 10 came back red — blackouts underwater and at the surface, pulls on the rope, a missed surface protocol. Molchanov's 95 m was the only dive past 90 m that stood.
Men's No Fins — 24 senior dives, 10 red cards.
Watch the men's No Fins session on CMAS TV
No Fins Women (CNF) — 24 August
- 🥇 Kateryna Sadurska (UKR) — 77 m
- 🥈 Alessia Zecchini (ITA) — 65 m
- 🥉 Jade Agboton (FRA) — 64 m
Sadurska's fifth consecutive CMAS world title in No Fins — 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. Twelve metres covered the gap to silver; a single metre separated silver, bronze and fourth (Sánchez-Arán, 63 m).
Women's No Fins — Sadurska's fifth straight world title in the discipline.
Watch the women's No Fins session on CMAS TV
Bifins Men (CWTB) — 25 August
- 🥇 Alexey Molchanov (CMAS1) — 127 m. New CMAS World Record.
- 🥈 Piotr Kubiak (POL) — 111 m
- 🥉 Francisco Quesada (ESP) — 104 m
- 🥉 Samo Jeranko (SLO) — 104 m
Quesada and Jeranko tied on 104 m for a shared bronze. Bourdila reached 117 m and was disqualified for a pull on the rope.
Men's Bifins — Molchanov's fourth gold of the week, and his second world record.
Watch the men's Bifins session on CMAS TV
Bifins Women (CWTB) — 26 August
- 🥇 Natalia Zharkova (UKR) — 110 m
- 🥈 Kateryna Sadurska (UKR) — 103 m
- 🥉 Mara Guida (ITA) — 95 m
The closing session, and the two deepest announcements of the day never made the table: Zecchini reached 111 m and was pulled on the rope, Paganelli reached 100 m and blacked out at the surface.
Women's Bifins — the last session of the championship.
Watch the women's Bifins session on CMAS TV
Senior CMAS World Records
- 🌍 Alexey Molchanov (CMAS1) — Free Immersion, 133 m (19 August)
- 🌍 Alexey Molchanov (CMAS1) — Bifins, 127 m (25 August)
- 🌍 Natalia Zharkova (UKR) — Free Immersion, women, 107 m (20 August)
Another eight world records were set in the Masters brackets, and four in CMAS's adaptive classes — all four by Alexander Kusakin, one in every discipline he started. Fifteen in nine days.
Senior medal count by country
Eight senior events (four disciplines × men and women) produced 25 medals — two ties added an extra silver and an extra bronze.
| Rank | Country | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ukraine | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | CMAS1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 3 | Italy | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Mexico | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 | Poland | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Spain | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 8 | France | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 9 | Slovenia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Masters
CMAS scores Masters in their own age brackets — M1 (50+), M2 (60+) and M3 (70+) — separately from the Senior tables above. Roatán's Masters fields were small and set eight world records between them.
Men
| Bracket | 🥇 | 🥈 | 🥉 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CWT M1 | Arnd Steckenborn (GER) 96 m | Eugen Goettling (AUT) 95 m | Samir Outahyou (MAR) 63 m |
| CWT M2 | Gennady Roshchin (ITA) 100 m — WR | — | — |
| CWT M3 | Sauveur Lococo (FRA) 75 m | James Kevin McNally (USA) 62 m | — |
| FIM M1 | Eugen Goettling (AUT) 106 m — WR | Arnd Steckenborn (GER) 80 m | Andrey Zhdanov (CMAS1) 88 m / 75 pts |
| FIM M2 | Gennady Roshchin (ITA) 97 m / 92 pts | — | — |
| FIM M3 | Sauveur Lococo (FRA) 72 m | James Kevin McNally (USA) 55 m | — |
| CNF M1 | Eugen Goettling (AUT) 74 m — WR | Arnd Steckenborn (GER) 60 m | Andrey Zhdanov (CMAS1) 53 m |
| CNF M2 | Gennady Roshchin (ITA) 72 m — WR | — | — |
| CWTB M1 | Eugen Goettling (AUT) 100 m — WR | Andrey Zhdanov (CMAS1) 86 m | Arnd Steckenborn (GER) 85 m |
| CWTB M2 | Gennady Roshchin (ITA) 88 m — WR | — | — |
| CWTB M3 | Sauveur Lococo (FRA) 79 m — WR | James Kevin McNally (USA) 68 m | — |
Women
| Bracket | 🥇 | 🥈 |
|---|---|---|
| CWT M1 | Jennifer Brant (USA) 50 m | Christina Montalva (USA) 44 m |
| CWT M2 | Claire Beatrix Paris (USA) 63 m — WR | — |
| FIM M1 | Christina Montalva (USA) 46 m | Jennifer Brant (USA) 45 m |
| CWTB M1 | Jennifer Brant (USA) 47 m / 44 pts | Christina Montalva (USA) 35 m |
Three of the Masters stories are worth pulling out. Eugen Goettling set an M1 world record in three different disciplines in one week — 106 m FIM, 74 m CNF, 100 m CWTB. Gennady Roshchin started four disciplines, won four M2 titles and set three world records, including the first M2 dive to reach three figures (100 m CWT). And James Kevin McNally took an Americas continental record in each of the three disciplines he started, at 70+.
Bartosz Jakubowiak
28 August, 2026 • 6 min read