Matt participated in the AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016 and surprised everyone with breaking record after record!

The competition took place on 25th June - 3rd July 2016 in Turku, Finland.

Matt broke three world records during this competition - one during the eliminations and two in the finals.

The current official record stands as follows:

DYN 300m WR 3rd of July 2016, Turku, Finland, AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016 - current World Record

DNF 244m WR 2nd of July 2016, Turku, Finland, AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016 - current World Record

DNF 232m WR 28th of June 2016, Turku, Finland, AIDA Individual Pool World Championships 2016

Below you can read Matt's thoughts in an emotional post made right after the competition on July 4th, 2016:

My dream came true, I've become double World Champion (DNF&DYN) with World Records set in the same swims :)

You may not believe but literally after yesterday’s 300 [m] I was in constant movement and only now after getting back home I have a couple of minutes to write few words about World Championships in Turku. There is a lot to write about which I will do at some point. I'm full of emotions but this picture of Daan Verhoeven describes it all.

I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY.

I have broken 3 World Records in 2 disciplines, 232m in DNF qualifications, improving it in finals by another 12m up to 244m. To me it is a history, it’s a record that lasted 6 years and no-one thought it will be beaten any time soon, at least not until last month :) It means to me so much more than that 300m but it’s less admirable by people because it’s not a round number :) I still can’t believe that I have improved it by 12m and there was much more in tank.

I’ve calculated a few months ago that I should be capable of doing 252m on a perfect day, based on my speed, stroke count etc. but even that number is wrong. Numbers are wrong, it’s all wrong because it’s Limitless. Numbers are in our heads and on this championship I’ve focused on making good dives with good feelings, keeping thinking about numbers just for last part of dives as a motivational tool. I must say it worked wonders for me! I came to Turku to defend my DNF title, DYN was the 2nd priority because I knew there will be no rest after DNF finals and there are athletes strictly focusing on DNF or DYN only during this championships. On the other hand, I knew that if I can do around 250 DNF, 300m DYN shouldn’t be a problem even without rest so let’s try to swim and see how it goes. I did it, I have swum 300m and became World Champion in DYN, splitting the record with Georgios Panagiotakis but I got the gold because my announcement was higher (it was closer to actually reached distance by 1m). 

 

You can read an in-depth interview with the World Champ here: https://www.deeperblue.com/interview-mateusz-matt-malina/

[The record-breaking 300m dive on YouTube]

Matt also started writing his blog in Polish, so if you're a Polish-speaking fan, we encourage you to read his blog here: http://mattmalina.com/

You can find some English posts there, too.

Stay tuned for more info from the Champ!

Photo courtesy of: Daan Verhoeven

 

Last modified on Thursday, 10 November 2016

A bit than a month ago on October 24th, 2015 I participated in the Zlin Cup 2015 - a freediving competition focused on two pool disciplines: the STA and DNF. I have been attending this competition for years, except last year when I went to compete in the Vertical Blue '14. This year I could go back to my tradition and participate in the Zlin Cup 2015. I won the Cup, but unexpectedly this competition brought me a lot of satisfaction. 

After a failed static (7:31) I was loosing 40 seconds to Martin Valenta (CZK) who pulled off 8:11, breaking by 5 seconds Czech national record of Martin Stepanek, which wasn't broken for 14 years and was a World Record established in 2001. 

I was watching his start while trying to relax in the water. Less than 5 minutes before my OT I saw Martin coming up on 175m. He did a very solid performance after a big static result. His good result meant I had to swim 192m to win the whole competition. At this moment I thought “it’s gonna be tough”. Normally, this distance is easy for me, but let’s not forget that we did the static beforehand, and a 2nd swim during one day can’t be as good as the 1st one.

It turned out to be one of the best dives in DNF I have ever done. Great control, great feelings and when I turned at 175m I knew it’s “mine”. I swam until I saw the “T” mark, because I knew it’s already more than enough. This way I made 197m when I surfaced very clean. If I’m not mistaken it’s the longest DNF in the world done after a STA during the same day. I only hope to have the same state of mind one day when I will try to break the world record in DNF again, because this execution was perfect despite all the anxiety beforehand!

You can check the results and details on the Zlin Cup 2015 website or if you understand Polish, you can read more about the competition on Apnea Sports.pl.

 

Last modified on Tuesday, 08 December 2015

Biggest goal for this year achieved. I am now the World Champion and World Record holder in DNF!

Now it’s time to beat the World Record at World Championships :)

8 months ago when I broke the WR in DNF I thought nothing is going to stop me from winning in Belgrade. I remember how disappointed I was in 2013 when I have failed.

However, due to some personal issues my training this yearwas not going as planned. After a 4,5 month break from DNF I’ve started practicing it in the middle of March with 125-150m swims which felt pretty bad. I was still struggling and thought that there is not enough time. However, I did my best and everything clicked in the middle of May. I was full of optimistic thoughts. I got one spike down in my last week of training, cause I quit few dives at 125m. After these ups and downs I went to Belgrade, and didn’t really know what to expect. I knew my body was in a best shape it ever was, but my mind liked to play tricks on me. 

After my DNF heats during the final eliminations in Belgrade I knew everything was right and I was calm.

In the A - Final I have executed my dive perfectly and I’m really happy about it. At the time I thought World Championships are about winning medals not breaking records. So I took the conservative approach and decided to come up after I saw middle of the pool at 212,5m. Final distance was 214m (1m was reduced for turning below steps again:) ) I was frequently asked If I would make it to the wall. To be honest I can’t be sure, cause hypoxia is an unknown queen that beat really experienced freediver Natalia Molchanova in the DNF finals, resulting in her discqualification due to black-out... 

Frankly speaking the dive felt much cleaner than the one in Brno. In Brno when I set a new WR, while turning at 200m I thought in a rush "I go for next wall no matter what like a kamikaze". I still came up clean.

However in Belgrade at 200m I was cleaner in my head and I thought "Ok, let’s play it safe, swim past the mark in the middle of the pool and take at least silver medal". It was enough for gold luckily.

I don’t regret that decision cause I believe it was a right one. After my WR in Brno I jumped with my PB pretty heavily and it was psychologically hard to repeat that kind of dive. Now I have achieved few of those ~215m dives pretty clean and calm, something clicked in me and I feel 225m dives will become much easier mentally in the future.

If this had been a normal competition, next to the wall (coming up on ropes is a bit more stressful), I would probably have gone in kamikaze-mode for that New Zealand NR and I think I would have made it! But then again it would build a mental barrier in me due to big jumps in my personal records. In the end I prefer to take things slow, with constant progress and one day this record will fall. I only hope for enough training motivation :)

I look forward for the AIDA Depth World Championships now.

Thanks to Ola, my family, my friends, my general sponsor Grena LTD, 35WOG for providing me training facility and all supporters, who crossed their fingers for me!

You can view more pictures in the Gallery.

 

Last modified on Tuesday, 30 June 2015

It was a great time for me, because I could meet my Polish freeediving friends, with whom I didn't compete for a long time.

What was specifically interesting in this International Silesia Freediving Cup was that every team that wanted to compete for the Grand Prize had to include at least one female competitor! A brilliant idea to encourage women to join the contest and encourage them to try freediving.

I was going there to mainly spend a nice time with friends and not to actually compete. This way, I managed to do same easy dives with DNF: 175m, STA: 6:59, DYN: 150m.

Actually, I put on my monofin for the first time in a really long time, so it was certainly funny to watch my dive! I was moving like a drunk person! 

At the winners decoration I was surprised by the Polish AIDA representatives, who awarded me with a honourable reward for being the first Polish World Record holder in DNF! This was an extremely pleasant moment for me.

After the Cup in Rybnik, I have now some time to relax and decompress before starting my new training plan in January.

I was invited to do some interviews in the Polish radio and television and will share the recordings with you soon!

During my stay in the Bahamas I also sat down with Chris from FreediveEarth and we had a very nice chat. It was a fabulous opportunity to be interviewed in-depth by someone who can relate to the hardships of the freediving journey. You can read the interview on the FreediveEarth website.

Last modified on Wednesday, 16 December 2015

Everything has started last year after Belgrade. Everything happens for a reason! My motivation and will is unbreakable. As many times as I fail as many times I will stand up and face the challenge! On Sunday I’ve finally reached my goal. I can’t express how happy I am. I know that nothing lasts forever and someday someone will break that record...However it’s very important to me mentally, because for me it confirms that my methods of training, approach, knowledge, are all heading into the right direction.

After reaching middle point of 213m in June I decided to give it another go by the end of the year. On July 22nd, I’ve emailed Roman Ondruj saying “Let’s do it”. I can’t express how thankful I am to him for taking care of the organization and believing in me. Same goes to my general sponsor Grena LTD, because without their support it would be much, much harder or even impossible for me to afford all the training and trips. Training facility provided to me by 35 Wojskowy Oddział Gospodarczy also played a big role here.

Now back to the dive,

On Saturday morning, it was my first attempt and I’ve given up at 175m. The dive felt really good and I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t find motivation to push (I think it was just too easy up to 175), I was focusing on distance/goal too much (instead of just trying to do my best), it overwhelmed me and I gave up. On Sunday it was a similar dive, same thoughts and doubts but at 175m I thought that all the hard work will go to nothing, I will regret it like in Belgrade last year. Dealing with those thoughts got me to 200m, I’ve turned and then I knew that I will just swim to the next wall and turn.

When I look at it, there is so many things I can improve (technique, buoyancy, turns), but my problem was mental, not physical thus I was not worrying about it too much, there will be the time when it will be efficient to deal with it.

Most important part is, that this point used to be the wall, but not anymore, limits got moved once again in my head and I really look forward to improve in future!

P.S. on the video You can see me happy two times. Before receiving white card and after it…The part before judge decision is more internal. I was being happy from overcoming my own barriers and challenges (it didn’t matter what will be the verdict cause I was feeling already like a winner inside)… and being happy after receiving white card was being happy from breaking the World Record…So it’s like 2 separate records for me :)

Dive safe and enjoy the blue!

The Dive on youtube!

 

 

 

 

Last modified on Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Flash NEWS!

During Brno Freediving Competition I have just reached 226m in DNF which is a new WORLD RECORD!! 

Thanks Grena LTD and all other people for the support!

Roman Ondruj for organising this event!

More news and info once I get back home :)

Last modified on Wednesday, 25 February 2015