Balearic Islands win four medals and set several records at the Spanish Indoor Apnea Championship

This past weekend, from April 25 to 27, the 24th Spanish Indoor Apnea Championship was held in Vitoria-Gasteiz, in the STA/DNF/DYN/DYN-BF categories. The event was organized by FEDAS (Spanish Federation of Underwater Activities).

The Balearic delegation returned with four medals, as well as several Balearic records and numerous personal bests, also achieving an excellent fourth place in the overall ranking. This is a particularly demanding national championship given the outstanding performances recorded, including several Spanish records.

Noteworthy was the performance of Nicolai Gebhardt, a veteran competitor and pioneer of freediving in the Balearic Islands, who focused on the static apnea event, earning a bronze medal with a time of 7:06—just seconds shy of silver and behind elite athlete Garikoitz Iruretagoyena, double Spanish champion and bronze medalist in the last world championship.

Also worth highlighting are the performances of Juanan Servera, who won silver in the DYN category with a distance of 205.29 meters (an unofficial Balearic record), though he was disqualified under very strict judgment in the DNF event, and Mateusz Buckzec, who was in top form and earned bronze medals in both the DNF and DYN categories.

In addition, participant Cristina Ladaria overcame a delay of more than an hour in her turn and achieved a time of 5:25 in STA, placing fourth and also setting an (unofficial) Balearic record. Among the rest of the competitors, Minorcan athlete Julia Rita progressed steadily, overcoming a disqualification in her first event (DNF). She later achieved a solid mark in the DYN-BF category. ChrisHan Dieckmann, who also faced disqualification in the STA event, completed a respectable performance in the DYN-BF category. Likewise, Tomeu Morey once again demonstrated his reliability and consistency as a competitor, finishing in the top ten in all events.