GREECE, Sep. 10 — Nataliia Zharkova from Kharkiv competed at the CMAS 2025 World Championship Freediving Depth in Greece. She dove to a depth of 113 meters and won gold in constant weight breath-hold diving in a monofin.
Kateryna Sadurska and Nazar Levytskyi from Kharkiv also competed in the Championship. The three of them were the only representatives from Ukraine.
Zharkova’s dive was delayed by 20 minutes because one of the “buddy divers” who was supposed to watch out for Zharkova’s safety suffered from decompression sickness.
“He is fine, but according to the protocol, the start was delayed. After 17 years of freediving, I’ve learned to put up with it. I didn’t stress too much. I made sure I felt good and wasn’t freezing,” said Zharkova to Gwara Media.
It was the first dive of Zharkova in four years. She dove to the greatest declared depth of 113 meters and beat the current champion by four meters. She won a gold medal at the competition and became the National Record Holder of Ukraine.
Zharkova did not expect to win in this discipline, as Alessia Zecchini, the leader in monofin diving, attended the competition. “Alessia decided to do a safe dive (dive performed with appropriate safety measures, training, and equipment — ed.) and I won the bid,” she said.
Zharkova started preparing in November 2024. In May this year, she participated in her first smaller-scale deep diving competition. Then, she continued to train in the Deep Dive Dubai pool, which has a depth of 60 meters.
Zharkova is one of the few women divers who has dove to a depth of over 100 meters on a breath-hold without using air tanks.
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