Klovar wins world free immersion title as overall championship gap narrows to one point

Limassol, Cyprus. Croatia’s Petar Klovar won the men’s Free Immersion (FIM) world title at World Apnea 2026 with a 132-metre dive. The result left Klovar and Alexey Molchanov (AIN) separated by one point in the Overall World Championship standings, with one men’s discipline remaining.

Klovar and Molchanov complete successful dives

Klovar completed his title-winning dive after a breath-hold of 3 minutes and 55 seconds. Molchanov reached 128 metres, spending 4 minutes and 49 seconds underwater.

Both athletes returned to the surface in full control, successfully completed the required surface protocols and received white cards.

After their dives, both indicated that they had more to deliver. With the final men’s discipline still to come, tomorrow’s start list will set out their next performances in the contest for the 2026 Overall World Championship title.

Shared bronze and Asian record

Martin Ruman of Slovakia and Omar Al Ghailani of Oman shared the bronze medal after both completed dives to 113 metres.

Al Ghailani’s dive also set a new Asian Continental Record.

Further national and continental records

The field produced further national and continental records, including performances by Jan Knutzen of Germany at 111 metres, Brad Stephens of the USA at 108 metres, Kim Dahlgren of Sweden at 101 metres, Christian Brauchli of Switzerland at 94 metres, Marcell Bago of Hungary at 90 metres and Amin Jadidi of Iran at 90 metres.

Additional national records were set by Yaqoub Benjabal of Kuwait at 84 metres, Privilean Vitalie of Moldova at 83 metres, Marc Bou Mansour of Lebanon at 81 metres, Alexandros Polemitis of Cyprus at 78 metres, Aleksandrs Maskalenko of Latvia at 75 metres and Mohamed Aljneibi of the UAE at 75 metres.