WORLD'S ABSGLUTE FREEDIVER AWARDS 2011

The WAFA awards is the most objective measure of freedivers' rankings in each calendar year. ln 2011 I was honoured to win the award for the second time, and this year there were some great prizes. A special thanks to Ivo Truxa, who organises the award, and who is the genius behind the incredible rankings engine on the Apnea.cz webpage. Here is the official press release:

Last week APNEA.cz sponsored by Scubapro and Apneaman.cz announced the results of the annual award for the best and the most complete freediving competitors. The WAFA 2011 lists competitors with the best combination of perfonnances in six freediving disciplines achieved in competitions or in individual attempts officially sanctioned by one of existing freediving federations. This year, the main awards belong to Alena Zabloudilová (Czech Republic) and to William Trubridge (New Zealand). They both receive a revolutionary diving computer Scubapro Uwatec Meridian with an integrated heart rate monitor, and freediving equipment from Apneaman.cz.

The complete results can be found at http://apnea.cz/?awards

Freediving ranking 2011 per discipline: http:/ /apnea.cz/ranking.html?simple+2011

APNEA.cz Absolute Freedivers 2011

Alena Zabloudilová is a successful freediving competitor since many years, but it is her first time appearance on the list of the top 10 athletes, which she achieved thanks to balanced improvements in all disciplines. Her total score of 422.8 points is the second best rank of all times after the legendary Natalia Molchanova with incredible 540.1 points in 2009.

The second rank of Jody Fisher (Australia) is a big surprise. She was a complete newcomer in 2011. The third female rank belongs to another Czech, Jarrnila Slovenôiková, who appears among the top awarded freedivers regularly.

ln contrary, the first place of William Trubridge will not surprise any insider. He not only repeated his success from 2010 again, but he also managed to accomplish another historical achievement by beating his own best result of all times. ln

2011, as the first man in the history, he broke the milestone of 600 points, and scored 607.7 points (over 65 points more than in 2010).

Danish freedivers confirmed their qualities this year again: Rune Hallum Sßrensen finished on the second rank (third in 2010), and Jesper Stechmann ranked third.

ln the country ranking, the Czech Republic did the best, followed by France, and Russia in the women category, and New Zealand won the male category, with France again on the second rank, and Denmark third.

Apnea.cz awards also the most diligent male and female competitors -those who booked the highest number of starts. ln 2011 it was Junko Kitahama (Japan) with 27 starts and Grégoire Folly (Switzerland) with 23 starts.

All awardees receive prizes from the event sponsors Scubapro and Apneaman.cz.

The World's Absolute Freediver Award (WAFA) is an annual prize for freedivers with the highest combined score in six


freediving disciplines: static apnea, dynamic apnea with fins, dynamic apnea without fins (pool disciplines), constant weight with fins, constant weight without fins, and free immersion (depth disciplines).

Apnea.cz is a popular freediving website, maintaining the database of freediving competitions of all coexisting freediving federations.

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