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Bristol Blue 2017 Competition

Bristol Blue Freediving Competition

November 2, 2017

 

Bristol successfully hosted its second annual international freediving competition, covering the three main pool disciplines.

 

The two-day event, which took place on October 21 and 22 at Horfield Leisure Centre, was hosted by Bristol Freedivers and was supported by the Mares, Saltfree Divers, Dr Apnea, the British Freediving Association, Lobster Freediving Weight, Finisterre, Nomenca, D Smith Flooring, and Blue Water Freediving School. The event attracted experienced competitive divers as well as some new faces, both from the UK and overseas.

 

The overall winners of the competition were:

  • Male: 1st Mike Board; 2nd Aristomenes Vounakis; 3rd Eóin Clarke
  • Female: 1st Lucelle Simms; 2nd Beci Ryan; 3rd Rose Van-Gowler

 

Eóin Clarke set a new Irish National Record for his 137m DNF swim.

 

In the individual disciplines, the winners were:

 

STA

  • Male: 1st Adam Drzazga 6:35; 2nd Aristomenes Vounakis 6:05; 3rd Michael Board 5:46
  • Female: 1st Hannah Thurston-McGowan 5:08; 2nd Lucelle Simms 4:47; 3rd Rose Van-Gowler 4:04

 

DNF

  • Female: 1st Beci Ryan 120m; 2nd Lucelle Simms 104m; 3rd Johanni Nel 82m
  • Male: 1st Eóin Clarke 137m (NR); 2nd Michael Board 130m; 3rd Constantin Timosca 116m

 

DYN

  • Female: 1st Lucelle Simms 134m; 2nd Hannah Thurston-McGowan 130m; 3rd Beci Ryan 126m
  • Male: 1st Michael Board 200m; 2nd Philip Fennell 183m; 3rd Aristomenes Vounakis 151m

Best Newbies were: Male, Paul Sutton; Female: Hannah Thurston-McGowan.

In recognition of all those who sacrifice their time and make great efforts to ensure freediving competitions are a success, special prizes were given to Becca Warren for providing Safety and Shirley Turner for coaching.

 

Organiser and founding member of Bristol Freedivers Andy Jardine said: “This was our first two-day competition, covering all three pool disciplines. We had competitors from eight different nationalities and 18 PBs were set, including Eóin Clarke’s new national Irish record in DNF. It’s great that we had six different winners for each discipline, too, which highlights what a strong field of competitors there was. We’re already planning for bigger and better in 2018!”

 

Photos of the event and full results can be found at www.bristolfreedivers.co.uk/photos and at Facebook at Bristol Blue Freediving Competition.

 

*Accompanying photos taken by and courtesy of Neil Wood, Bristol Freedivers

 

Background information on the BFA and freediving 

1. The British Freediving Association (BFA) is the UK governing body of the international freediving organisation, l’Association Internationale pour le Développement de L’Apnée (AIDA). Founded in 1999, the BFA promotes recreational and competitive freediving, ratifies freediving records, and sponsors events for its members. The association also supports a growing network of affiliated freediving clubs throughout the UK. The BFA is a non-profit organisation and its committee is composed of volunteers. www.britishfreediving.org; www.aida-international.org

2. Freediving is the sport of diving underwater on one breath without the aid of mechanical breathing apparatus. The roots of freediving stretch back in time to the very origins of human development where the ability to hold our breath allowed us to gather food and resources at all depths. Today, the sport encompasses recreational activities like snorkelling and spearfishing as well as competitions. Some competitive disciplines include “static apnea” (a stationary breath hold in water), “dynamic apnea” (a horizontal swim underwater on one breath with or without fins) and “constant weight” (a vertical dive to depth on one breath with fins).

As with any extreme sport or sport involving water, freediving should only be undertaken with appropriate training and supervision. Freedivers draw upon a wealth of knowledge from within the freediving community to dive safely. Through ongoing training and education, freedivers develop increased awareness of and control over their bodies and minds. The BFA recommends that new freedivers take an AIDA freediving course.

 

Regular updates and news on UK freediving can be found at:

For further information please contact:

Louise Nelson, Press Officer

press@britishfreediving.org

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6th BFA Great Northern, British National Records for Georgina Miller & John Moorcroft, Winners Dan Betts (UK), Matej Bergoc (SLO) & Beci Ryan (UK)

George Miller 2015 Great Northern BFA National Record STAPicture Credit: Daan Verhoeven (www.daanverhoeven.com)

Thursday 26 March 2015; — On Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 March, the 6th Great Northern International and the BFA UK National Pool Championships, organised by Steve Millard of www.freedivers.co.uk was held at Lifestyle Fitness Aquatic Centre in Liverpool
(www.liverpool.gov.uk/lifestyles).

The Great Northern never disappoints in terms of Dan Betts 2015 Great Northern BFA UK winnerperformance and this
year was no different. Living up to the International bit of the title, fourteen countries were represented, with one athlete, from team USA, Mandy Sumner flying in from Hawaii the night before the competition! Keeping to tradition, national records were set, this year both British, over the course of the weekend. On day one, John Moorcroft, the first diver of the day, kick started the competition with a record in dynamic no fins of 176m and on day two, Georgina Miller set her record in static with 6 minutes and 33 seconds. John swam just over 7 lengths of a 25m pool on one breath with no fins, smashing his previous record of 167m, set at lJohn Moorcroft 2015 Great Northern BFA National Record DNFast year’s competition. Georgina Miller’s previous record was 6 minutes and 27 seconds set in 2014 at the 7th Mediterranean Freediving World Cup, and she pushed it a further 6 seconds away.

The UK male winner was Dan Betts with three strong performances, white cards and big smile at the end: 115m DNF, 05:39 STA and 151 DYN. Coming in second for the Brits was Josh Walton of Bristol Freedivers and in third Jason Kirkpatrick from the Glasgow Apneists UK group. In first place for International male Matej Bergoc of Slovenia with incredible holds: 140 DNF, 07:07 STA and 183 DYN, in second Stephan Heiss and in third David Fournier.

The UK female winner was Beci Ryan with 135m DNF, 05:12 STA and 150 DYN, in second Georgina Miller and in third Lucelle Simms. And Masa Sorn also of Slovenia, training with Apneists UK Yorkshire group, came in second place for International female with three strong performances (104 DNF, 04:46 STA, 150 DYN).

The winners of the Newbie Awards were Jason Kirkpatrick (05:17 STA) and Alison Hicks (151 DYN), with already impressively big holds and swims and a lot of promise for the future. Rumour has it that both athletes look set to join the UK Team at the Pool World Championships in Serbia!

The Great Northern is a competition that celebrates achievements across the board, it recognizes that freediving is not always about numbers and times but about personal achievements and obstacles overcome. The sense of atmosphere at this year’s competition spoke volumes, with athletes from clubs all over the UK and indeed the world, coaching, congratulating and celebrating personal bests with genuine enthusiasm.

Thank you to the sponsors for their support with such generous top freediving prizes, the helpers who made it so special, the judges, safety team and the athletes for attending otherwise it couldn’t have happened. The official kit sponsors were: Aqua Sphere (www.aquasphereswim.com/uk/) and Aqua Lung (www.aqualung.com/uk/), with sponsorship also coming from Fins4u (www.fins4u.com), Tidy Tide (www.free-water.org), and the British Freediving Association (www.britishfreediving.org). For a list of sponsors please visit http://www.freedivingcompetition.com/gn-sponsors-2015.html