An Italian freediver has died while checking the seabed off Alghero, in northwest Sardinia, just days before a national spearfishing qualifying event was due to be held there.
Francesco Pagni, 47, from Sarzana in the province of La Spezia, was working as the support diver — or 'second' — for competitor Fabio Tonazzini at the Italian Spearfishing Qualification Championship. As part of his role, he descended to inspect the competition area and did not come back up. Tonazzini and others at the event went in after him and found him unresponsive at roughly 12 metres deep.
He was brought back to the port of Alghero, where paramedics, Coast Guard crews and Carabinieri were waiting, but resuscitation attempts failed. An autopsy at the Sassari Institute of Forensic Medicine later established that Pagni died of acute asphyxia. Officials have not said what prevented him from surfacing.
Pagni was a well-regarded figure in the Italian underwater sports community. The Italian Federation of Sport Fishing and Underwater Activities (FIPSAS), which runs the championship, called him 'a passionate spearfisherman and expert freediver' and passed on condolences to his family. He is survived by his wife and two children.
The qualification rounds were scheduled for 18 and 19 September, with around 60 competitors vying for places in next year's Italian championship. Despite the death, the event is still expected to go ahead as planned.
For anyone visiting Sardinia's north coast — a hugely popular summer holiday spot — the incident is a sobering reminder of how demanding freediving and spearfishing can be, even for experienced practitioners in familiar waters. Alghero's coastline, with its clear Mediterranean water and rocky seabed, draws plenty of snorkellers and breath-hold divers each year. If you plan to freedive there or anywhere else, the basics matter: never dive alone, always have a trained surface buddy keeping watch, and know your limits on depth and bottom time. Organised diving and snorkelling tours with licensed operators are widely available along the Alghero coast, including trips to the protected sea caves of the nearby Capo Caccia area, and are the safest route for casual visitors.
The story itself will resonate most with the freediving and spearfishing community, but for holidaymakers it underlines a simple point: the Mediterranean can look calm and inviting while still posing real risks to anyone pushing their breath-hold limits without proper support.