Spanish team CDAS Trafalgar has won the I° CMAS Spearfishing World Cup for Clubs organized by Tunis Sport Fishing Federation in Bizerte last weekend, an appointment we already presented, as only international media, before its start.

(Text and photos by Valentina Prokic)

Raul Astorga, David Pineiro and Gullermo Natera won with 181,3% in front of Cyprus SFYKK team George Vasiliou, Stelios Yiangou and Nicolas Nicolaou with 148,4 % and Gabriele Delbene, Dario Maccioni and Roberto Dell’Avanzato, team Sub Club Brescia with 91,08%.

In the 1° CMAS Spearfishing World Cup for Clubs 29 teams have participated, coming from Malta, Brazil, San Marino, Croatia, Italy, Alger, Cyprus, Tunis, Lybia and Spain. Some clubs had more teams, so in the end winning club was Trafalgar from Spain, second was SFYKK from Cyprus and third ASSE Bizerte from Tunis (two teams). Sub Club Brescia was forth.

Day 1

After opening ceremony and defile of teams through town of Bizerte, day one was marked by Cyprus team with world champ George Vasiliou and his teammates Stelios Yiangou and Nicolas Nicolaou.

Cyprus day 1 catches

After five hours in the water Cyprus came with two dusky groupers 20730 grams and 13700 grams, dentex 2920 grams, two golden groupers 3560 grams and 3970 grams, motled grouper 2500 grams, gilthead seabream 920 grams, white seabream 615 grams and zebra seabream 500 grams. In total they got 48895 points.

Italian Team Sub Club Brescia

Gabriele Delbene, Dario Maccioni and Roberto Dell’Avanzato (Sub club Brescia) finished second with 39965 points. Italians caught two dusky groupers 10190 and 9150 grams, two motled groupers 5400 and 4750 grams, two brown meagres 980 and 795 grams, white seabream 540 grams and green wrasse 660 grams.

Spanish team Trasfalgar day 1

Third team on day one was spanish team with Raul Astorga, David Pineiro and Guillermo Natera (CDAS Trafalgar), very close to the Italian team, with 30955 points. Spanish spearos got two dusky groupers of 15550 and 13300 grams, two zebra seabream of 1815 and 1275 grams and three brown meagre of 1200, 1015 and 650 grams.

Team Copertino day 1

Fourth was CJS Atlantide Copertino with Alessandro Congedo, Giacomo Brunettini and Thomas D’Amico and 25585 points. After Copertino the difference with rest of the teams was very big so it was clear that battle for trophy will be between those first teams on day one.

Live video of athletes back to harbour with fish has been posted on Facebook and can be watched clicking here.

Day 2

On the second day conditions changed to very bad, with a lot of strong wind from North-East, short waves and strong current generating difficulties for everybody.

Spanish team manage to make the best in that conditions and their fish was remarkable. They came back to port with four motled groupers 7420, 6735, 4885 and 4585 grams, four red seabreams 5755, 4805, 4415 and 2580 grams and one zebra seabream 2255 grams. In total they gained 49535 points. Just for notice, they caught red seabreams on 53 meters depth, and shallowest fish was from 34 meter depth.

Spanish team Trafalgar day 2

Tunisian team ASSE Bizerte – Sami Belhaj Saad, Amine Belhaj Saad and Faycal Baddour had catches for second position, but with big difference from Spain.

Tunisian Team Bizerte day 2

Tunisians caught two dusky groupers of 17510 and 8225 grams, three brown meagres of 1090, 1205 and 885 grams and one white seabream of 710 grams. In total they got 30075 points.

In third place was the Algerian team SEC 17 Tipaza, made by Ali Ammour, Sofiane Hakim Mezidi and Mohamed Anis Medjadji with 18855. Total catch was two motled groupers of 6300 and 5350 grams, and six brown meagres of 1580, 1395, 1010, 825, 595 and 640 grams.

Team Alger Sec 17 Tipaza day 2

Cyprus team was fourth with 23970 points and it was not enough for winning. Spanish team compensated difference from day one and managed to be first in general classification.

Spain 1° and Cyprus 2°
Team Cyprus day 2

Sub club Brescia with Dario Maccioni, Gabriele Delbene and Roberto Dell’Avanzato came back with only one brown meagre of 1095 grams, but even with that they kept third place in total. They had a lot of good points in zone A, but on competition day spots were empty.

Team Italy Dario Maccioni

Team Italy

A big applause was made for Brazilian team with Francisco Loffredi, Gabriel Barra and Carlos Keiske (Clube dos Marimbas) for the amberjack of 25630 grams. The funny thing was that they got the spot in a restaurant a night before from some guy that heard them speaking about the fact they did not have any point to go on second day. He gave them a point and there was plenty of fish, also four big groupers, but these were too deep. Finally, when the amberjack appeared Brazilians got their jackpot.

Team Brasile con una enorme ricciola

Spearfishing legends Renzo Mazzari and Riccardo Molteni with Nicola Riolo finished on 12th place in the end, but they were definitely most popular spearos there. Everybody wanted to get in touch with team, take a photo, speak for moment and as legends do they made it all with big smile on faces.

Team Palermo Molteni – Mazzarri – Riolo

Live video of athletes back to harbour with fish on day 2 has been posted on Facebook and can be watched clicking here.

final results teams
final results teams 2
final results

Tunisian Federation make a great effort to organize such a big International event, but they had quite some problems due to lack of experience in organizing such world event, and bad communication between people involved in the organization was often an issue.