MANILA – Wil Dasovich recently set a national record in static apnea (STA), in which a person endeavors to hold their breath underwater for as long as possible.

In an interview with ANC’s “Headstart” on Thursday, Dasovich revealed that his motivation to push his physical boundaries stems partly from his desire to inspire individuals, given how he battled cancer five years ago.

“I almost forget that at times. I am sure a lot of people forget about it. It’s something I’ve never talked about in any interviews or anything about this whole experience but that is completely one of the reasons why I continue to push my body to the limit,” he said.

“It’s a very inspirational aspect of just my entire journey showing that five years ago, I didn’t know if I was gonna even be alive. I had no idea what life entailed at that point. A few years later, I just stuck with everything I’m doing,” he added.

• Wil Dasovich sets record for holding breath underwater

In an effort to spark inspiration, Dasovich said it's truly motivational to recognize that someone in his position persists in moving ahead, demonstrating the remarkable potential of the human body.

Delving into the essence of STA, Dasovich explained that it constitutes merely a single facet within the realm of freediving, which encompasses a diverse range of disciplines.

“The sport is freediving and there are many aspects to freediving. There are different disciplines is what they are called. In a competition, there’s basically three different things that they are measuring,” he explained.

“They are measuring how deep you can dive in the ocean, they are measuring how far you can swim in a pool, and then the third one is how long you can hold your breath,” he added.

Dasovich said he specialized in the breathhold segment because that’s what he enjoyed the most and had the most time to train for. In fact, he did an online coaching with the “world’s best freediver.”

“He’s the GOAT in the freediving community. He just trained me by doing a series of breathhold exercises every single day.”

Now that he has this amazing breathhold capability, Dasovich shared that he is now ready to move to the other disciplines and push my limits with that.

“Now I want to train more in the pool and the ocean. I’ve considered moving to Bohol or to Batangas,” he said.