1st Place...

On Sunday i entered my first competition. This is what i had been training for and aiming at for so long. Ever since i completed my first freediving course i wanted to compete but never in a million years thought i would win!

The competition was the 2nd Great Camberwell UK Breath Hold organised by Liv Philip (UK National Record Holder)

The list of athletes was very daunting to read and William Trubridge was to make his first attempt at DNF of 150mtrs in a competition! The performance from such an amazing athlete was great to watch (a real master class) unfortunately he made an error in his surface protocol.

I learnt so much about what it's like to compete and what i have to improve on for next time, "my nerves"

My OT was at 12.40hrs for static and i began to warm up 45mins before, i did exactly what i normally do in training and started. The first thing i noticed was my heart rate, normally at 50-55bpm and sometimes as low as 44bpm, felt so much faster and seemed to stay at 100bpm throughout!

All my warm up times were terrible and way out from what they normally are and by the time i reached the performance area i already knew i was in trouble. I had announced a 5min 05sec hold which meant if i was under this i would be given penalty points. I got my count down from 20secs and started my hold at +4secs (something was going right) i started to go through my mental routine, that place you try to disappear in your mind. By the time i started i just knew the contractions were going to start so early.

Normally contractions start at about 4mins but they started at 2min 45sec! I was so gutted as i was hoping for a 6min static. I got my first tap at 4mins, by this time i had already gone through 40 contractions and when i got my second tap at 4min 30sec i had lost count. I slipped my hand underwater to look at the time as the 3rd tap seemed to take forever and i had forgotten to start my stopwatch! I came up early and was given my first orange card for not reaching what should of been a very 5min 05sec.

My dynamic O.T was at 14.49hrs and went much better and i completed a new P.B of 133mtrs. I felt i could of finished the length to reach 150mtrs but decided to come up early and ensure i got a white card. The dynamic felt great and i feel i have alot more to offer in this discipline?

The performances by the women were fantastic and 3 NR were broken by G.Miller/L.Philip & M.Buckley. Alan Barber who holds the NR for dynamic went for a very strong 107mtr DNF performance which he did with ease.

Martin (Yoda Turtle) did an amazing P.B in DNF also and went way over 100mtrs against his old performance of 88mtrs. Amazing and well done Martin.

I will post on the pictures of the event once they come through and also my first AIDA official world ranking.