2012 World Spearfishing Championships
The World Spearfishing Championships in Vigo, Spain, ended on July 8th after a four day gathering that featured two days of socializing and meetings followed by two days of competition. The 5th was occupied by the event’s inauguration, team meetings and a dinner. The second day was consumed with captain’s meetings and other social functions. Spearos from 26 countries participated in the championships for the World Underwater Federation event. World titles were awarded to the teams and individuals that speared the heaviest and largest quantity of fish from the eligible species, including grouper, wrasse, moray eel and others.
The diving itself began in earnest on the 7th from 10:00 a.m. local time to 3:00 p.m. The same schedule was held on Sunday, the final day of the championships. Reports said that the sea conditions were brutal. It was moving fast, and it was unpredictable with conditions changing from good to bad in mere minutes. When the winds switched from the southeast to the northeast, visibility and water temperature changed too. Visibility was reported at 20 to 30 feet, but it also diminished to 2 to 3 feet. This led to a difficult time for teams that were used to better waters and a longer shooting range, which required shorter, smaller guns for the closer proximity action. Water temperature during the event was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but in deeper waters it was far chillier. There were plenty of fish in the rocky shallows, but larger ones lurked below the 30-feet level.
The official results are finally available. Spain was the grand champion of the challenging competition. Portugal took second place, and third place was won by Croatia. The team from the United States finished in the 13th position citing a difficulty to acclimate to the the murky, colder, rougher seas. Jody Lot of Portugal won the individual honors. The highest U.S. finisher was Miguel Guinovart, who took 31st place out of 70 divers.
The next championships will be held in Helsinki, Finland, whose brackish waters should make for another challenging competition, especially for spearos who are used to warmer, clearer waters.
Here are the team results by country and the top 25 individual finishers:
Results by Country
1. Spain 435.66
2. Portugal 432.48
3. Croatia 400.10
4. Italy 391.07
5. Ukraine 373.97
6. Greece 352.48
7. Chile 311.85
8. Algeria 264.28
9. Slovenia 243.15
10. Tahiti 226.60
11. Turkey 224.66
12. Great Britain 214.28
13. USA 178.32
14. Peru 177.81
15. Brazil 160.08
16. Russia 136.18
17. Finland 135.23
18. San Marino 124.28
19. Norway 76.13
2012 World Spearfishing Championships VIGO
PLACE # DIVER COUNTRY 1% 2% %FINAL
1 LOT, JODY PORTUGAL 100 96.89 196.89
2 LINARES, ANTONIO SPAIN 83.85 88.7 172.55
3 GOSPIC, DANIEL CROATIA 93.58 70.86 164.44
4 ANDRII, LAGUTIN UKRAIN 53.74 100 153.74
5 SETTMI, ANDREA ITALY 78.23 64.71 142.93
6 LOPEZ CID, SANTI SPAIN 59.45 76.79 136.24
7 PARREIRA, SILVA PORTUGAL 43.9 90.62 134.52
8 DE SILVESTRI, BRUNO ITALY 54.22 78.61 132.83
9 GINKOS, EMAMANOUIL GREECE 58.35 71.27 129.62
10 HERAS, JAIME SPAIN 42.49 84.39 126.88
11 JAKUPOVITZ, RADOSLAV CROATIA 35.7 89.54 125.23
12 BOSQUEZ, FRANCO M CHILE 49.08 73.14 122.22
13 ROBERT, PORGORSEK SLOVENIA 70.12 47.08 117.21
14 OLEXANDRE, GALAKTIONOV UKRAINE 39.54 77.01 116.54
15 VAIHOARII, TAEATUA TAHITÍ 53.13 63.2 116.34
16 FELICE, CONCETTO ITALY 58.19 57.11 115.3
17 RODRÍGUEZ, JORGE A CHILE 48.42 66.74 115.16
18 MAKRIS, KONSTANTINOS GREECE 40.55 73.1 113.64
19 DALY, KEVIN GRAN U.K. 30.11 81.48 111.59
20 TASDIBI, HUSYIN TURKEY 48.8 61.99 110.78
21 MARINOV, DARIO CROATIA 48.46 61.96 110.42
22 BARSAKIS, DIMITRIOS GREECE 25.47 83.74 109.21
23 ROMAN, FEDASH UKRAIN 35.01 68.67 103.68
24 MOHAMED, IKHLEF ARGELIA 31.3 71.49 102.79
25 TORRES, RUI PORTUGAL 31.99 69.08 101.07
