We have already interviewed the Spanish Champion Isabel Sánchez-Arán before the CMAS Freediving Outdoor World Championship. With a magnificent CWT dive on the second day of competition, the Spaniard achieved a good sixth position and her personal best (-93m), also using bifins and not the monofin. However, the thought of her friend Andrey Matveenko and his serious accident, together with the serious shortcomings on the part of the organization, made everything less beautiful. We spoke with the Spanish champion again the day after her dive, a day of rest to allow the whole organization to solve the important safety problems detected.
Isabel Sánchez-Arán
“Today I participated in the CWT, but using bifins, as I have never started in the monofin.
Many people ask me why I don’t use it, and the truth is that the answer is simple: at first I didn’t have the money to buy it. Later, when I could, I decided not to because I find it a nuisance to travel and, moreover, impractical. As a freediving instructor, I can do everything with the bifins: work, train, fish, snorkel or SCUBA.
There is also another reason: I already compete in all disciplines, both indoor and outdoor, and between training and work I don’t have time to get into another modality. I confess that I would like to learn, but I have to be realistic and prioritize.
On the sporting side, my dive today to 93 meters was a personal best, something that makes me very happy in the midst of so much emotion.
And this championship has been very hard on an emotional level. Our thoughts are with Andrey Matveenko, who is in the hospital after a decompression accident with pulmonary barotrauma in a dive, and with Tatiana, his partner, who is not separated from him. They are very close friends for me and for my partners Natalie and Fran. We did everything together. We are heartbroken. What we really wish we could do would be to accompany him at this time instead of competing, but the hospital does not allow visitors and we have the obligation and responsibility to represent our country.
We hope with all our strength that Andrey recovers soon, that in the future responsibilities are clarified and, above all, that everything that has happened serves to advance the investigation of Taravana cases in freediving and to implement new safety protocols that protect all of us athletes.
My announced depths in this competition have not been compromised, but I will not deny that our morale is very low. In this World Championship I am going down with my heart divided between the sea and our friends.
